Hospice Austin

Hi everyone, only two more days to vote for Hospice Austin for Best Hospice and Christopher House for Best Hospital/Medical Center in the Austin American-Statesman’s Community Choice Awards! Thank you for your support!

2024 Austin Community's Choice Awards Voting Ballot Vote for the top nominees in each category and be entered to win a $250 gift card!

Fantastic story from Allison Miller with CBS Austin News about Camp Brave Heart and these brave campers!
https://cbsaustin.com/news/local/camp-brave-heart-where-kids-learn-to-navigate-grief-with-hope-and-healing #

Camp Brave Heart: Where kids learn to navigate grief with hope and healing Nestled amidst the natural beauty of Johnny Knox Ranch in Fischer, Texas, Hospice Austin's Camp Brave Heart recently drew to a close, leaving behind memories of

Oscar wanted one last dance with his sweet wife. It was possible thanks to Hospice Austin's Christopher House. We are so lucky to get to witness these beautiful acts of love.

When he arrived at Christopher House, Keisha Jones, Director of Christopher House, asked for the name of their favorite song to dance to, and it was Gary Hobb, Las Miradas. As his family gathered around to witness Oscar dance the last time with his sweet wife. Keisha helped Oscar stand up and he said, “You are granting me my final wish and I thank you.”

To read more about Oscar's story (shared with his permission), please click here:
https://www.hospiceaustin.org/the-sweetest-dance/

Happy Father's Day! Wishing everyone love, peace, and joyful memories.

Hospice Austin Christopher House Director Keisha Jones and RNs Morgan Sutton and Rachel Forester were guests at Hospice Austin's monthly Access & Marketing team meeting today. As Keisha says, Hospice Austin's Christopher House is devoted to delivering top-notch care to our patients while preserving their dignity. Our highly skilled providers and nurses are proficient in various end-of-life care techniques, including extubation, ventilator withdrawal, high flow oxygen (AirVo), and weaning off cardiac pressors, allowing patients to pass away with grace. With our unwavering commitment to excellence, Hospice Austin continues to be the gold standard in hospice care.

One of our patients would really like to see his beloved little dog settled into a loving home before he passes. Can you help us spread the word?

Anyone interested in Little Mama should contact Hospice Austin's Pet Peace of Mind coordinator Gayle Smith at [email protected]. Thank you!

Great news!!

Hospice Austin has been chosen by Austin American-Statesman readers as one of the finalists in TWO categories: Best Hospice and Best Hospital/Medical Center (for Hospice Austin's Christopher House). And Austin Palliative Care has also been included in the nominees for best hospice (even though it's palliative care, not hospice)!!

You can vote daily for us through June 24. We appreciate your support in showing that nonprofit hospice care makes a real difference in our community! 💙

2024 Austin Community's Choice Awards Voting Ballot Vote for the top nominees in each category and be entered to win a $250 gift card!

Please join us in thanking RN Linda Crabtree for her 17 years of service to Hospice Austin! Linda is retiring tomorrow. She started with us in January 2007, and served as an RN Case Manager on Red Team for 8 years before becoming a part-time visit nurse. She has worked as a PRN nurse for On-Call and currently serves as a hospital admission RN.

Before coming to Hospice Austin, she worked as a newborn nursery nurse. Linda said that working at Hospice Austin gave her the opportunity to establish a relationship with her patients. She said that she loved knowing that she was really helping her patients and their families.

A master naturalist and a volunteer at the Wildflower Center, Linda is now looking forward to devoting more time to her photography, where she is working on a project to catalogue the different birds and insects. She is also looking forward to spending more time with her three grandchildren.

Thank you, Linda, for the compassion and care you’ve given to our patients, their families, and our staff for the past 17 years. You will be missed!

All 85 Camp Brave Heart campers, 20 Hospice Austin counselors, and 2 camp nurses made it back to Austin tired but full of gratitude for the experiences we shared over the past four days. To send us off, the kitchen staff at John Knox Ranch made us some delicious cinnamon rolls for breakfast. Then we circled up with the fabric that we had knotted together at the start of camp and remembered that we are not alone; that as difficult and painful as grief can be, it's a normal part of being human; and that we are all connected.

Many thanks to everyone who makes Camp Brave Heart a success year after year!

Our third day of camp was jam packed with activities and connection. Canoeing, fishing, swimming and zip lining along with group time where each camper had opportunities to share, listen, and do arts and crafts related to grief and healing. This evening was our memorial service. All the memory boxes were displayed and we honored our loved ones with a canndle ceremony and words summing up our time at Camp Brave Heart. We have had a woderful time!

Day of Two of Camp Brave Heart was fantastic! The kiddos have had a blast doing the zipline, low and high ropes, swimming in the pool and the Blue Hole, eating ice pops, burgers and watermelons and making friends. They also worked on decorating memory boxes and sharing with their small groups about the person they lost. Thank you to Allison Miller for arranging for CBS Austin to come out. Watch the early show in the morning for the story!

Everyone is tired but happy and looking forward to tomorrow!

The first day of Camp Brave Heart went very well yesterday! After arriving at camp, the campers did swim checks, had a delicious dinner (the food at John Knox Ranch is very good!) and then enjoyed all kinds of activities from tractor rides to basketball, making friendship bracelets, face painting, and finished up the day with homemade ice cream!

Camp Brave Heart starts today! The kids, divided into age groups, got to know one another at registration and already started making friends. Grief can be so isolating -- kids often don't know anyone their age who has lost a loved one. Before boarding the bus to go to camp near Wimberley, they all came together in a circle where they tied strips of cloth together and then raised the circle of fabric above their heads to symbolize that they are all connected to one another and that they not alone. And so the Camp Brave Heart magic begins!

Everyone is looking forward to the pool party at camp tonight!

Welcome our small but mighty (RE)Hire Group! We only had 2 new hires start this past Monday, but they are 2 REHIRES that brought back to Hospice Austin a combined 31 years- yes you read that correct, thirty-one years- of Hospice Austin experience! Please help us re-welcome Ron and Darlene!

While some staff may have changed since they left (some have been here since they started), our culture, heart, and care for each other are still here and thriving! They will both be a great part of that (again) and will add to this already amazing Team.

"My mother died at home, on her own, while I was in Boston. I misunderstood her ability to drive, shop, and take care of herself as signs that the end was still relatively far away. It was only in retrospect, after talking with her oncologist, that I understood she had a high likelihood of a fatal brain bleed all along.

Why didn’t anyone talk to us about that risk? Why didn’t anyone give us guidance about how we could manage the situation differently? Why didn’t anyone ever mention palliative care or hospice options?

I assumed we would eventually use hospice, but was afraid to ask about it because I didn’t want to seem pessimistic when everyone was so focused on a cure. In retrospect, I think my mom was also concerned about her quality of life, but no one wanted to talk about it with her, either. This created another problem, which was that she and I didn’t know how to talk with each other about our thoughts and preferences. The result was a lot of silence and delay, and her dying without any of the supports that I now know are available.

If you wait for someone to tell you that end-of-life is approaching, it might be too late for you to act in alignment with your priorities. This is why it’s important to be proactive and have the discussion early—even if it seems too soon, and even if the odds are high that you’ll be cured."

Most People Don’t Get the End-of-Life Care They Really Want. Here’s What You Can Do to Change That My mother died of cancer in 2011, when I was in my 30s. My father had died a decade earlier, and most of our family lived far away. So even though I lived in Boston and my mom was in Denver, we had to figure out how I could help

Please join us in congratulating Hospice Austin RN Case Manager Paige Sabatino on her impending arrival. Her baby is due July 26th, and we are so happy for her!!

We are getting ready for Camp Brave Heart next week, and we are excited!! Many thanks to our generous sponsors -- because of their support, we are able to offer this camp to grieiving kids and teens at no cost to their families. Thank you to HEB Tournament of Champions Charitable Trust, The Harry E. and Eda L. Montandon Charitable Trust, Service Insurance Company, Texas Oncology, and the Topfer Family Foundation!

Mark Cruz, special guest Christina Sandsengen from Norway, Classical Guitar Alive's Tony Morris, and James Fenner performing at Hospice Austin's Christopher House, in Classical Guitar Alive’s Music In Medicine program.

Thank you to Texas Commission on the Arts and Proponent for their support of CGA's Music In Medicine program, and a very special thank you to Tony Morris for founding and championing this program. His beautiful music has brought comfort to countless patients and their loved ones.

Hospice Austin is starting an 8-week bereavement support group for teenagers. While teens benefit from the support of important adults in their lives, significant healing can occur by sharing their thoughts, feelings, and stories with peers. Hospice Austin recognizes the positive impact of peer support and is looking for teens 13-18 years of age who would like to participate in an 8-week group.

Parents and Guardians, please join us for an online introductory session Saturday, July 13th at 10:30 am. Your teens will begin their sessions Saturday, July 20th at 10:30 am and their sessions will occur in-person at Hospice Austin's administrative offices.

For additional details or to be added to the interest list, please call Hospice Austin's Bereavement Department at 512-342-4700.

In honor of the men and women who died fighting for all of us, and in honor of the loved ones that we also privately mourn, wishing all of you a Memorial Day filled with peace and love.

Wrapping up our week at Hospice Austin we want to give a warm welcome to this weeks new hire orientation group! They have had a great first week learning about our Company and systems. This group includes two rehires that have rejoined us, as well as five amazing new employees to bring a fresh perspective to the community care we offer. We understand that we are often helping people at a pivotal time, and we love having employees join us who are focused on helping make that experience one of dignity, comfort, and respect.

If you are interested in joining a team that cares for each other and the community, please view our open positions at https://www.hospiceaustin.org/careers/available-positions/

Rosa Jaimes was named Hospice Austin's Christopher House employee of the month! Rosa has worked for Christopher House for an amazing 22 years, and is the longest serving employee there. She started out in housekeeping and now works in the kitchen. She’s always ready to go above and beyond cooking, cleaning, training new employees, covering for absent employees, and is always ready to help, even if it’s not part of her job duties. Rosa’s commitment and dedication to our patients, family, and staff is evident to anyone who meets her. Thank you, Rosa, and congratulations!

Students from the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired arranged and brought flowers for our patients at Christopher House! Many thanks to Shelly Sanders and Neely Kulhanek for facilitating the visit. After donating the flowers, the students received a tour of Christopher House from Director Keisha Jones. Thank you, students, for thinking of our patients. We appreciate your thoughtfulness!

LGBTQ+ Online Drop-In Grief Group
This drop-in group is for adults in the LGBTQ+ community who are grieving the death of a person in their life, at any point after the loss.

The group meets on the 2nd and 4th Thursdays of each month from 7:30 - 8:30 pm. There is no cost to attend and no pre-registration is required. Our next group is May 23rd at 7:30 pm on Zoom.

General Online Drop-In Grief Groups
Our general online drop-in grief groups meet every Tuesday from 12 - 1 pm and every Wednesday from 7 - 8 pm.

Join us online or over the phone through Zoom. These groups are designed to be available when you need them. No rsvp is necessary and there is no commitment to attend a certain number of sessions. Come as you are when you need to be with others who are grieving. They are for any adult grieving the death of a loved one at any point after the loss. There is no cost to attend.

Please call us at 512-342-4700 for the Zoom link at least 24 hours before the group you would like to attend. Hospice Austin also offers individual counseling, monthly webinars, and in-person support groups. Visit www.HospiceAustin.org/bereavement for more information.

"Chemotherapies, immunotherapies, targeted therapies and hormone therapies do not improve survival rates in patients with very advanced tumors near the end of life, according to findings published May 16 in the journal JAMA Oncology.

'Since we don’t see an improved survival benefit, oncologists should revisit their goals of care conversations with patients, and this information in the study should be explained to patients,' said lead researcher Maureen Canavan, an associate research scientist with Yale Cancer Center."

Most Cancer Treatments Near End of Life Are Useless: Study Key Takeaways

Yesterday evening, we hosted a Hospice Austin Notable Donor reception to honor the donors who have supported Hospice Austin for four decades. The beautiful event was hosted in the home of Dina Tebcherany, MD and her husband Jimmy Nassour, Esq. Dr. Tebcherany is an oncologist at Texas Oncology. Texas Oncology has a long history of giving back to our community and we are fortunate to have a 30+ year partnership with them.

Our donors allow us to go above and beyond the care provided by most hospices. These funds help us to operate Christopher House as an alternative to going to the hospital, enable us to offer an extensive bereavement program including Camp Brave Heart for grieving children, and allow us to care for those who need our services regardless of the patient's income or insurance status. Our donors enable us to provide the very highest quality of care. Thank you.

When it comes to her medical care, Jazmin Campbell, 21, has a long history of not being believed.
https://www.hospiceaustin.org/overcoming-barriers-to-care/

Interesting article discussing the benefits of palliative care when elected early. Austin Palliative Care, Hospice Austin's affiliate, offers a home-based palliative care program for seriously ill patients that are still undergoing aggressive treatment for their disease. Patients who feel better tend to do better. Visit https://austinpalliativecare.org/ to learn more.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/patients-fare-better-when-they-get-palliative-care-sooner-not-later/

Patients Fare Better When They Get Palliative Care Sooner, Not Later Supportive care is often started late in an illness, but that may not be the best way

The Austin Chamber of Commerce recently honored Patsy Martin, pictured here with Hospice Austin Development Director Robin Clemons. Ater noticing that Austinites lagged behind other cities in charitable giving to local nonprofits, Patsy founded the nonprofit, I Live Here, I Give Here. In 2012, I Live Here, I Give Here launched the successful 24-hour giving period, Amplify Austin. Since then, generous Central Texans have contributed more than $100 million to more than 700 local nonprofits on Amplify Austin days. She has made a profound difference in our community.