Janice White has seen the hospice philosophy of comfort and support in action.

White, the human resources manager for the Visiting Nurses Association, works with hospice staff members as colleague and as a relative of a patient when her own father died two years ago.

The hospice staff members from the Visiting Nurses Association in Lawrence were there every step of the way for her father and her family during her father’s last days, she said, and their compassion and skill were remarkable.

“The staff that do this…it’s not for everybody,” White said. “Some of our staff has said it’s almost like a calling for them. Because there are lots of nurses, there are lots of social workers, there are lots of home health aides. But not everyone is comfortable in that kind of situation.”

The program’s philosophy is simple: Hospice provides support and care for people in the last phases of an incurable disease so that they may live as fully and as comfortably as possible, according to the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization.

And the nonprofit hospice program through VNA integrates that philosophy into every interaction, whether it’s with patients or families as they put their affairs in order.

Debbie Caffey, hospice manager with the VNA in Lawrence, said that the staff strives to make the patient and the family comfortable. “It just improves (a patient’s) quality of life, especially when one is facing a limiting illness,” Caffey said. “It kind of feels like their world is shattered. People feel powerless and overwhelmed, and I think hospice comes in and can help with the physical symptoms as well as the spiritual part, and just helping the family with all their problems.”

Among the services provided by hospice:

• Skilled nursing
• Two medical directors who are physicians and who work with the health care team
• Respiratory, physical, speech and occupational therapy
• Social workers
• Certified home health aides
• Bereavement care program with a chaplain
• Volunteer program with 65 volunteers, which includes pet therapy, music therapy, massages
• Life After Loss group twice a year
• Keepsake children’s program three times a year

The bereavement, Life After Loss and Keepsake programs are offered to the entire community and promoted through the schools, Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center, the Lawrence-Douglas County Health Department and other agencies.

“Sometimes we get calls from the community who have worked with other hospices or haven’t been involved with hospice and need bereavement counseling,” Caffey said. “We don’t turn anyone away. We always want to help everybody.”

Hospice workers are typically registered nurses with special hospice training. Most of them are certified or are going through the certification process in hospice and palliative care, Caffey said. Home health aides and volunteers also go through a training program, she said.

Hospice offers a breadth of services as well as the coverage of equipment such as a hospital bed or oxygen tank and medication essential to the patient’s comfort. But there is usually no cost to the patient or family. The patient must meet the guidelines to qualify for the program, and Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance typically cover the costs.

A physician determines whether the patient meets hospice guidelines, which typically involve a diagnosis of a terminal illness with a prognosis of six months or less if the disease runs its normal course.

Caffey reiterated that working in hospice takes passion for both patients and their families.

“You want to help the patient; you want to build an individualized plan of care with a patient and include the entire family,” Caffey said. “Because our goal is to keep this patient at home and keep the families well educated, and education is a huge piece to this. That nurse has to like to educate families. You have to have a passion for it and want to help this family take care of their loved one.”

White is also a strong advocate after her own experience on the receiving end of care. She realizes many people hesitate to use hospice because they feel that it signifies a kind of surrender. But she wishes more people would take advantage of hospice programs.

“It really, truly is a benefit to the patient, to the family. I know people struggle with it, because it is something people don’t like to think about or talk about. But it can be so much help to people if they would open up their minds.”