Literature Review

Locally and veteran-owned Headwaters Hospice and Palliative Care expands healthcare offerings for Montana communities Business Post Examiner, Helena, MT; by Michael Brown; 1/22/25 In just one year since receiving the prestigious CHAP Accreditation, Headwaters Hospice and Palliative Care has become a cornerstone of compassionate care in the Helena Valley, Montana. ... Building on this success, Headwaters Hospice and Palliative Care is proud to announce its expansion into the Butte/Silver Bow County area, bringing its renowned services to even more Montanans. In addition to hospice care, the company will begin offering palliative care services in 2025. These services will not only provide an alternative provider for Helena but will also be the only in-home palliative care option available in Butte. 

Big Bend Hospice opens new resale boutique benefiting local families Apalachicola The Times; by Bill Wertman; 1/15/25 At Big Bend Hospice (BBH), every decision we make is guided by our commitment to serving families across North Florida with compassion and care. For more than 40 years, we have been a cornerstone of support for patients with advanced illnesses and their loved ones. Today, I am proud to share an exciting new chapter in our story: the opening of Oak Tree Treasures, a resale shop located at 3260 Mahan Drive in Tallahassee. ...  Oak Tree Treasures embodies our mission of ensuring every family has access to the highest quality hospice care, regardless of financial barriers. All proceeds directly support our hospice services and therapeutic programs, bringing comfort and dignity to families during life’s most challenging moments.

Nonprofit opens home-based care facility for hospice patients Fox KNWA-24/KFTA, Lowell, AR; by Justin Trobaugh; 1/17/25 A nonprofit organization introduced a new resource Jan. 17 for those in Northwest Arkansas who need home-based care. Circle of Life provides hospice and in-and-out patient care services, and it opened its Joey Feek Center for Home-Based Care in Lowell. The facility will serve 93% of the non-profit’s patients and was donated by the Willard and Pat Walker Charitable Foundation. 

Community rallies to bring 12-year-old cancer patient homeNBC 26, Green Bay, WI; by Ezekiel Telemaco; 1/18/25 Hadley Baker returns home to a community welcoming her with open arms. 

Agrace expands hospice services into Milwaukee County Agrace.org; Press Release; 1/14/25 Residents of Milwaukee County who are in the final months of life have a new choice for high-quality, in-home hospice care. Agrace, the largest Wisconsin-based nonprofit hospice, has announced it is expanding its services into the county. For more than 45 years, Agrace Hospice Care has offered end-of-life care to people of all ages across southern Wisconsin. Milwaukee County residents can now enroll with Agrace to receive hospice care that comes to them where they live—in private homes, long-term care facilities or any other place they call home. In addition to a new regional office ... in Wauwatosa, Agrace has offices in Oconomowoc, Janesville, Dodgeville and Baraboo, and a hospice inpatient unit and residence in Madison. The Wauwatosa office is home base for an interdisciplinary care team that includes local hospice physician Andre Cernasov.

[UK] Volunteers collecting Christmas trees for charityBBC News, West of England; by Harcombe; 1/10/25Volunteers are collecting thousands of Christmas trees to raise money for a hospice. The team from Dorothy House Hospice offers the collection service across Somerset and Wiltshire and will be collecting trees from doorsteps until Sunday. Since the service was launched eight years ago, they have raised £370,000 for the hospice, raising more than £118,000 so far this year. Dan Varley, from the hospice's fundraising team, said: "We do it as a way to support the community, but also to raise funds for the hospice which is so, so vital for us." 

Quilting for a cause: Sterling sewing group donates quilts to Rock River Hospice & HomeShaw Local News Network, Sterline, IL; by Brandon Clark; 1/12/25The ladies of New Life Lutheran Church’s sewing group know what it means to sew love into every stitch. The group meets at the church from 9 a.m. to noon every Wednesday to sew, quilt, knit and crochet for fun, fellowship and a good cause. Group member Karen Lofgren said they donate the quilts they make to Rock River Hospice & Home of Sterling, which gives one to each new client. ... Lofgren said the sewing group has been donating quilts since Rock River Hospice opened in 2017. The sewing group donates an estimated 120 to 150 large quilts to the hospice home each year and recently presented its 1,000th quilt.

Iowa Finance Authority okays more than $500,000 for North Iowa homeless assistance [$66k to Cedar Valley Hospice] KIMT3 News, Des Moines, IO; by Mike Bunge; 1/9/24 Over $500,000 in grants from the Iowa Finance Authority is going to homeless assistance programs that cover North Iowa. $18,189 will go to Community Kitchen of North Iowa, Inc. in Cerro Gordo County.  Cedar Valley Hospice covering Allamakee, Black Hawk, Bremer, Buchanan, Butler, Chickasaw, Fayette, Floyd, Grundy, Howard, Mitchell, and Winneshiek counties will receive $66,565.  $474,108 will go to Primary Health Care covering [28 counties] ...

Peter Yarrow, iconic Peter, Paul and Mary singer and former Connecticut Hospice board member, dies CT Insider; by Andrew DaRosa; 1/7/25 Peter Yarrow, one-third of the iconic folk troubadours Peter, Paul and Mary, has died at the age of 86 ... “Our fearless dragon is tired and has entered the last chapter of his magnificent life. The world knows Peter Yarrow the iconic folk activist, but the human being behind the legend is every bit as generous, creative, passionate, playful, and wise as his lyrics suggest,” Yarrow's daughter, Bethany Yarrow, said in a statement to the Associated Press. ... Yarrow frequently performed in Connecticut and was scheduled to play with Stookey in July at the Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center in Old Saybrook. Yarrow also performed at Connecticut Hospice in Branford, where his mother had stayed, according to a 2017 interview with Compassion and Choices. He served on the board for Connecticut Hospice for a number of years. 

Top news stories of the month December 2024 - TCN podcast Teleios Collaborative Network (TCN); podcast by Chris Comeaux; 1/8/25 In this episode of TCNtalks, Chris Comeaux, Mark Cohen, and Cordt Kassner discuss the top news stories in hospice and palliative care for December 2024. This episode marks the end of Mark’s two-year run of partnering with Chris to review the month’s top stories, with Cordt taking on that role going forward, along with his colleague at Hospice & Palliative Care Today, Joy Berger. Mark takes a deeper dive into three big news events in December, Cordt looks at the most-viewed articles from both December and all of 2024, and Chris, as usual, highlights articles of particular import to hospice C-Suites.  

Caregiver reported experiences of not-for-profit hospice agencies with a religious affiliationJournal of the American Geriatrics Society; by Xiao (Joyce) Wang, Joan M. Teno, Momotazur Rahman, Emmanuelle Belanger; 12/24Compared to those without a religious affiliation, the religiously affiliated hospices were smaller in size, newer, had a higher shares of patients with dementia, and also a higher percentage of patients living in nursing homes, and were more likely to be in the Midwest. These hospices also had lower scores across all CAHPS measures, with the magnitude of these differences by religious affiliation being small to medium. Compared to hospices without a religious affiliation, a much lower proportion of hospices with a religious affiliation received four or five stars (66.5% vs. 47.6%).Publisher's note: While for-profit hospices have been grouped into various categories (e.g., private equity owned or publicly traded companies), this is the first article I recall grouping nonprofit hospices into various categories.

Children’s Hospital New Orleans dedicates new ‘Bella’s Room’ ComfortCare Suite NewOrleans.com, New Orleans, LA; by Site Staff; 12/26/24 Children’s Hospital New Orleans recently celebrated the opening of “Bella’s Room,” a ComfortCareSM suite designed to serve as a sanctuary for children in need of end-of-life care and their families. ... “With the generous support of the Bella Bowman Foundation, honoring Bella’s lasting legacy, Bella’s Room will transform the way children and families across Louisiana and the Gulf South experience serious illness and end of life care,” said Lindsey Casey, RN, senior vice president and chief nursing officer for Children’s Hospital, said in a release. “This beautiful space will help our team provide family-centered end of life care, while offering a comfortable and serene home-like setting for the entire family to be a part of the care experience.” 

Bellingham nonprofit introduces barnyard animal therapy for hospice patients, families The Bellingham Herald, Whatcom County, WA; by Rachel Showalter; 12/25/24 From bunnies and chickens to full-sized horses, a new Whatcom County program is offering mobile farm animal therapy to hospice patients. Bellingham nonprofit Animals as Natural Therapy (ANT) started the Rainbow Bridge program this fall. Volunteers bring barnyard animals to visit seniors in care facilities across Whatcom County in an effort to bring joy and comfort to local hospice patients, bereaved families and hospice staff. It’s the latest program addition for the nonprofit which has offered animal-guided mental and behavioral health programs for youth, veterans, families and seniors since 1999. “ ... Barnyard animals may have a specific effect, according to the nonprofit. “For many people from older generations who grew up with backyard chickens and goats, the animals also bring a warm sense of nostalgia,” the ANT said in the announcement.