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Celebrating 25 Years of Comfort,
Care, and Compassion
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Heart of Georgia Hospice is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. Executive Director Tim
Poole is excited about sharing Hospice’s 25 years of service in the Middle
Georgia area. As part of the celebration, Hospice is hosting a fundraising
dinner on March 16 at 6:30 p.m. at the Galleria Conference
Center in Centerville.
“Our keynote speaker for the banquet will be Skip
Philips, CEO of Houston Healthcare, who will speak from his experience with
Hospice. We will also include testimonials shared by families that have been
served by our Hospice. We’re looking forward to good food, good entertainment,
and people in the community learning more about Hospice,” said
Poole.
Heart of Georgia Hospice held its first
fund-raising dinner last year and found that it was a successful way to raise
money for increased ministry in the community.
“This year we anticipate about 300 guests. While
there’s no charge to get in, seating is limited, and reservations must be made
by calling our office (478-953-5161) by March 8,” Poole added.
History
Heart of Georgia Hospice, originally named
Hospice of Houston County, incorporated as a nonprofit in 1984, and started
serving patients in May 1985. Originally housed in the First Presbyterian Church
on Watson Drive,
Heart of Georgia Hospice changed locations several times before moving to its
present home on 103 Westridge Drive in 1998. Tim Poole has served as executive
director for the past five years.
“We changed our name in 2006 to Heart of Georgia
Hospice because we serve a 10-county area, and some people thought our services
were limited to Houston
County because of the old name,” Poole said.
“Probably the biggest highlight in our history
was opening Heart of Georgia Hospice Inpatient Care, formerly known as Serenity
Gate, six years ago. This six-bed inpatient care facility, housed in a wing of
Perry Hospital, has been a tremendous help to our mission and also to the community,”
Poole said.
Heart of Georgia Hospice was started by a group
of several area churches and community members who shared a concern that no one
should die alone or in pain.
“The whole philosophy of Hospice is moving away
from someone having to die in a hospital bed. Caring comfort is the emphasis.
During an average year, we serve about 300 families throughout the Middle
Georgia area.
“While we’re one of nine Hospices in this area,
we’re one of two nonprofits, and we’re the only Hospice that’s a nonprofit,
independent, standalone organization. Our mission is to serve as a Christian
ministry in the community. We’re proud to do that. I have frequent meetings with
my staff emphasizing our role of serving in the community. When we’re going out
to assist our patients, we’re ministering the love of Christ to these families,”
Poole
explained.
Services
In addition to providing Hospice care at home, in
nursing homes, and the Inpatient Care Facility, Heart of Georgia Hospice also
offers related outreach ministries.
Every November, Hospice provides a bereavement
camp for children ages 6-16 who have lost a loved one. Called
Camp Wings, the weekend retreat is held at Camp Martha Johnson in
Lizella and is staffed by the Hospice employees and volunteers from the
community. In 2009, thanks to volunteers from Leadership Warner Robins and
Wal-Mart stores, about 100 staff and volunteers assisted.
A community-wide Memorial Service is offered by
Hospice each December. It was held at
Southside Baptist
Church in 2009 and will be again in 2010.
Heart of Georgia Hospice provides bereavement
support groups for people who have recently lost a loved one. The meetings are
held every third Tuesday of the month. Caregiver support groups are scheduled as
the needs arise.
“We employ two chaplains, Todd Shearin and
Michael Rodgers, and we’re hiring another chaplain right now,”
Poole said.
“We also offer counseling to the bereaved in our
community. Hospice’s licensed professional counselor meets with people in the
community as a free service. We have crisis intervention teams that we can send
to first responder and community agencies to help support and counsel them when
they are dealing with a tragic loss,” Poole added.
More about Hospice
“Many people believe that accepting help from
Hospice is giving up and that it’s a death sentence. If anything, we greatly
encourage the patients and their family to live and make the most of their time.
Our social workers work very closely with financial planning, funeral planning,
issues that need to be resolved, and getting things that have been left undone
tidied up. It actually has been a time for families to draw closer together,
which is a great thing,,” Poole
said.
“We’re helping families make the most out of a
very difficult time. Sometimes doctors can get the prognosis wrong. If we can
come in, provide some good care and see the patient released from the program,
that’s the best-case scenario. If we can keep patients out of constant hospital
stays and concentrate on comfort, care, and compassion for the time they have
left, then we have greatly increased their quality of life.
“The large majority of people we serve are
elderly, but that’s not the full spectrum. We’ve treated infants, small
children, teenagers, and young and middle-aged adults. People who have young
families have been on our program.
“Heart of Georgia Hospice is making a difference
in our community. We have received so many cards from people in our community to
say thank you for the care and help that was provided. They mention our staff
members by name. They say that they would never have been able to make it
through the situation without us. I view what we do as ministry. As we go into
the homes serving people, we are ministering to the patient, as well as reaching
out to the whole family,” Poole
noted.
How You Can Help
Faithful volunteers in area churches have been
providing hand-sewn, soft, comfortable cancer pads to Hospice for years. These
churches include Central Baptist, First Baptist Perry, Shirley Hills Baptist,
and Sandy
Valley Baptist
Church.
“We’re always open to having volunteers helping
in the office with administrative work or being more directly involved with our
patients by reading to them or just sitting with them. A lot of our patients are
shut-ins who would love to have people come visit them,”
Poole said.
Heart of Georgia Hospice, a
United Way agency, operates as a Christian
ministry and a not-for-profit, charitable 501(c) 3 organization. For more
information, call the office at 478-953-5161. You can find Heart of Georgia
Hospice on the web at www.Heartofgashospice.org or on Facebook.
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