Hope Hospice Offers Comfort, Support & Guidance When You Need It Most

This Patch article is sponsored by Hope Hospice.

When your loved one is faced with a life-limiting illness, you want a care team who treats them with compassion, dignity and respect. It’s perfectly normal to consider curative care. But maybe your family has decided against treatments that could make your loved one uncomfortable in the time they have left. The team at Hope Hospice is here to provide guidance and answer your questions about the hospice option.

When the patient’s doctor feels that the underlying condition indicates a life expectancy of six months or less, they qualify for hospice care. Hospice is a special kind of holistic care that is provided in the comfort of home — whether that’s a personal residence, at an assisted living community or in a nursing home. In most cases, hospice care is fully covered by Medicare or a private insurance plan. That means there’s no out-of-pocket costs for nurse visits, pain medications, personal care supplies, or rented medical equipment like a hospital bed.

We refer to hospice as as comfort care because the priority is pain and symptom management. Medical monitoring is just one aspect. Most people don’t realize how many resources are part of the hospice program. A full support team works together on all aspects of your loved one’s care.

• A social worker helps facilitate any needed resources, paperwork, and final arrangements.
• A pharmacist ensures the patient has all needed pain medicines.
• A nurse and home health aide visit as needed to ensure the patient is safe, clean, and comfortable; and they educate you on how to attend to your loved one on your own. Although the hospice nurse doesn’t stay in the home, we have support by phone available 24 hours a day.
• Home care volunteers offer companionship and services like bedside reading or a visit from a therapy dog.
• A non-denominational chaplain can meet with the patient for spiritual support or a life review.
• A bereavement counselor can help you process your loss.

Hope Hospice also has a trusted dementia-care education program to help families better understand the changes they are noticing in their loved one and how to provide the best care. We offer support groups, care consultations, and a series of free classes for family care partners. Thanks to grants and generous donations from our community, these services are available to the local public at no charge, even if your loved one is not on our hospice service.

A common misconception about hospice is that it means you’re giving up hope. But what’s really happening is that you’re redefining hope. As a family, you’re taking charge of how the rest of your time together will be spent, so that you can focus on things that matter to you.

You don’t have to wait for the doctor to suggest hospice care. If your loved one has been diagnosed with a life-limiting illness and no longer wants to pursue curative treatment, you can raise the conversation of hospice. Typically, the doctor will provide a list of local hospice agencies. You can select from that list or go with another option—it is entirely your choice. We encourage you to research online at HospiceCompare.gov. This federal website is a valuable resource that provides easy access to quality scores of all Medicare-certified hospices.

So, why choose Hope?
Hope Hospice is a non-profit organization that has been serving the Tri-Valley and adjacent East Bay cities since 1980. Though we’ve grown in numbers and service area over the past four decades, our commitment to exceptional care has never wavered. Everything we do is with the goal of providing quality service to our patients and their loved ones. Your interactions with our clinicians, social workers, chaplains, and administrative team will make you feel supported and cared for. When compassion and quality matter most, choose Hope Hospice. Connect today at (925) 829-8770.

Patch had a chance to talk with Kendra Strey, of Hope Hospice.

Patch: Tell us a bit about your business or organization:
Strey: Hope Hospice provides compassionate end-of-life care of the highest quality. The hospice team is composed of many types of practitioners and support personnel who ensure the family has every needed resource to care for their loved one in the comfort of home.

Patch: How long have you been doing business in town, or how long has your organization been around in the community?
Strey: 42 years (est. April 1980)

Patch: What attracted you to the line of work you’re in, and how did you get started?
Strey: I have 20 years of communications experience in various concentrations, including journalism and marketing. While my skillset can apply to jobs in a variety of fields, I was drawn to the mission and community atmosphere at Hope Hospice. As a nonprofit, Hope is not solely focused on the financial bottom line. Providing individualized care plans of the highest quality is what drives our decisions. Hope is the type of place that draws dedicated, kind employees; it's a great team to join.

I hadn't worked in healthcare prior to joining Hope in 2019. But I brought publishing and marketing experience to our small but growing company that we hadn't had before. I've helped tell Hope's story to new audiences and in new ways.

Many people assume that working in hospice is sad. Yes, there is a certain heaviness, but we also share in a lot of joy and love; we witness families bonding through the process of spending time together during the final months of a loved one's life.

Patch: If you had to sum up your business mission to a stranger in a few words, what would those words be?
Strey: Hope Hospice is "Committed to supporting patients and their loved ones with exceptional care, compassion and dignity."

Patch: What’s the most satisfying part of your job?
Strey: When a family decides to start hospice care for a loved one, it is a very emotional and overwhelming time. It is of course very sad, because the end is near. But in most cases, the time someone is on hospice is a precious season for families to spend together, mend what needs mending and celebrate their loved one while they say goodbye. I experience joy vicariously through our client families who express appreciation for our support during the last weeks or months of their loved one's life. We are inundated with letters of gratitude; many of them share similar phrases like "You all are angels on Earth" and "We could not have made it through this without you." Even though I am not on the clinical care team, I still feel I have helped in some way: I have prepared informational materials for the family, I help our educational teams prepare webinars and presentations for family caregivers, and I co-produce our annual memorial service. So, when we get these letters that thank the whole team, I know I'm included even though we may not have met in person.

Patch: How would you say your business or organization distinguishes itself from the others?
Strey: We make decisions based on a 100 percent commitment to what's best for the patient, not always what makes the most sense for our business.

Patch: What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given when it comes to success?
Strey: Do what's right, even when you see others taking shortcuts or cheating the system. The cream always rises to the top.

Patch: Are there any new projects or endeavors you’re working on that you’re extra excited about?
Strey: Hope Hospice has an annual fundraiser event each spring called Hike for Hope. In 2022, we experienced an unprecedented response from our community, breaking records for both registrants (1,300) and money raised ($180k). It was remarkable to watch so many people (in our matching event T-shirts) on the trails at Del Valle Regional Park! We can't wait to see the turnout in 2023.

The other thing I'll point out is our Family Caregiver Education Series. This is a monthly series that offers senior-care education and resources at no charge to our community, even if they do not have a loved one on our hospice service. We've added and/or tweaked a few of our dementia-related topics based on the incredible feedback we get from participants.

The Series isn't new, but the COVID pandemic led us to transition the classes to an online format via Zoom. That allowed many more people to participate than when we were in our brick-and-mortar classroom. Each webinar sees an average of 40 participants compared to 15 or so in our classroom. In our last reportable fiscal year (2020-2021), 589 individuals tuned in to 15 webinars.

Patch: Do you have any events coming up in your community? If so, tell us about them.
Strey: See above. Hike for Hope is tentatively scheduled for May 6, 2023. We also are having a new Crab Feed at the Shannon Center in Dublin on February 25, 2023. Both of these are fundraisers, but they also share a second goal of providing a space for community connection.

Learn more about Hope Hospice via their website. You can also call (925) 829-8770 or follow Hope Hospice on Facebook, Instagram or YouTube.