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Montgomery Hospice marks silver anniversary of service

Center sets a new goal of reaching out to the county’s multicultural groups

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Click here to enlarge this photo Laurie DeWitt⁄The Gazette Staff members at Montgomery Hospice’s Casey House in Derwood include the Rev. Paulette Stevens, registered nurses Barbara Bise and Hoori Bahamian, communications director Andy Reynolds, registered nurse Bolaji Obaro, Chaplain Robert Washington, chief executive officer Ann Mitchell, nurse practitioner Diane Ruckert and volunteer Rona Elias. Click here to enlarge this photo Laurie DeWitt⁄The Gazette Memory stones line the garden at the Casey House.

‘‘We’ve touched a lot of people’s lives in this county,” said Ann Mitchell, hospice president and chief executive officer.

Montgomery Hospice is a nonprofit and nondenominational organization based in Rockville that has cared for 12,000 to 14,000 people in its history, and double the amount of family members, Mitchell said.

Although most people think of hospice as an organization that helps people at the end of their life journey, there are deeper dimensions, hospice officials agree.

‘‘The hospice is not about dying. It’s about living well until you die,” said the Rev. Paulette Stevens, director of diversity and multicultural outreach at Montgomery Hospice.

The goal is to make the patient’s final weeks or months of life as pleasant and pain-free as possible, she added.

By providing hospice care at home and inpatient care at its Casey House in Derwood, and by having a full-time physician’s office onboard, Montgomery Hospice provides an encompassing service, Mitchell said. The goal is to get the physical aspects, like pain and nausea, under control, then deal with the spiritual and emotional side for both the patient and family, she added.

Montgomery Hospice provides most of its services in people’s homes or nursing homes. Patients who come to the Casey House, the only dedicated facility for hospice care in the county, have their own room, where they receive acute medical care and are monitored closely.

Physicians, nurses, chaplains and volunteers make home visits.

‘‘It’s kind of like having a specialty team coming out,” Mitchell said.

The team follows the overall direction of what the patient and family want, Mitchell said.

‘‘We want to empower the family to take care of the patient,” she said.

About 200 people volunteer at the hospice. They receive extensive training, Mitchell said, and help with cooking and household chores, play music for patients and also read to them.

‘‘They’re trained friends ... there to meet the needs of the family,” Mitchell said.

Rona Elias has been volunteering at Montgomery Hospice for almost two years and has worn many hats during her tenure, working in patient care, talking with families, giving hand massages to patients, and assisting with administrative work. Elias had two relatives who turned to hospice care, and she wanted to give back to a service that she found helpful and healing in her family’s time of need.

‘‘Without volunteers, we would almost close shop in a week,” Stevens said.

Many people don’t know that Medicare covers 100 percent of hospice costs, including all drugs related to the terminal diagnosis, ambulance and hospitalization, Mitchell said. For patients who do not have Medicare, the hospice works with charitable organizations to help cover the cost, she added.

Bereavement services are open to anyone who is grieving in the community, Mitchell said. About 30 percent of people with whom bereavement counselors work do not have family members or friends who died in hospice, she said. The hospice even provides bereavement counseling to companies and employees who have suffered a loss, she said.

Now it is time to reach further into the multicultural community.

When Stevens came to the home five years ago as a chaplain, she ‘‘recognized right away that there was an imbalance in the ethnic makeup of the patients that utilized hospice service.”

The hospice fully supported her effort to reach out to the African American community, she said.

About 3 percent of the hospice patients were African American in 2001, and less than two years later that number grew to 13 percent, Stevens said.

The hospice established a diversity and multicultural outreach office in February to expand efforts to connect with the Latino and Asian communities.

‘‘Montgomery Hospice is making a statement and declaring its commitment and intention to serve this entire community,” Stevens said. ‘‘That’s how we’re kicking off our 25th year, and I think it’s wonderful.”