Being responsible for a person’s quality of life seems daunting. Often times, we make caregiving more difficult than it needs to be. The Heartland Hospice Memorial Fund has awarded thousands of grants with the intended purpose of improving many patient’s quality of life by providing wish fulfillment. Yes, many of these grants involve special celebrations, family trips, or travel, but some are quite simple.
One patient’s weekly beauty salon visits had to be discontinued after she moved to a nursing home; another patient could no longer afford the subscription for his favorite newspaper. Both of these situations caused sadness and anxiety for the patients. Many patients and their family members lack the funds needed to reunite with loved ones or experience one last trip together. Whether enjoying a trip to Disney World, quietly spending time with a cherished loved one, reading the newspaper, or enjoying a few hours at the salon, the focus is on improving the lives of patients and families during life’s most difficult days.
Tammy Christiansen, Manager of Business Development at Heartland Hospice Care told us how important this is to their staff and the people that they care for, “One family was able to use to memorial fund money to pay off bills that were behind after their mom died on our service. Another family used the money to fly some loved ones out to spend time with their father before he died.” This memorial fund helps provide comfort for so many people in our community, Christiansen went on by saying, “Other stories I have heard in the past include, our memorial fund purchasing a washer for a young mom who was on our service suffering from terminal cancer whose washer had just broken down. She had multiple small children in the home and was struggling with advancing symptoms which made it difficult for her to leave the home to go to the laundry mat. This added a tremendous amount of stress on her due to the amount of laundry she and her family had every week. Our social worker was able to request assistance from our memorial fund to purchase her a new washer, had it delivered and installed.”
Give a gift to remember life, celebrate love, and provide comfort during the Christmas season by donating to the Heartland Hospice Memorial Fund.
Heartland Hospice team members are determined to seek out community resources and assistance for Heartland Hospice patients. They spend a lot of time applying for grant funds on behalf of hospice patients and their families who don’t have the finances to meet daily needs and they don’t give up! Many hospice patients and families experience substantial decreases in household income due to the patient’s terminal diagnosis. Some face utility disconnection and home foreclosure as a result. Others simply have no food and need clean water.