The Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce had a ribbon-cutting on Wednesday, June 15, to celebrate Kosciusko Home Care & Hospice adding palliative care to its services. The ribbon-cutting was held outside the organization’s office at the K21 Health Services Pavilion, 1515 Provident Drive, Warsaw. InkFreeNews photo by Leah Sander.

By Leah Sander
InkFreeNews

WARSAW — Just because a person is suffering with a serious illness or condition doesn’t mean they don’t want to receive care.

Kosciusko County Home Care & Hospice’s new program aims to help with that.

The Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce had a ribbon-cutting on Wednesday, June 15, outside the nonprofit’s office in the K21 Health Services Pavilion, 1515 Provident Drive, Warsaw, to celebrate it adding palliative care.

Kosciusko Home Care & Hospice added the new service in January, said the organization’s Executive Director Glenn Hall, mentioning that part of the reason was to meet the desire for it locally as nobody else is providing in-home palliative care in Kosciusko County.

“So at the end of 2021, we just made a conscious decision for a variety of reasons — health care is changing, reimbursement is changing, it’s hard to get staff — so we looked at what does Kosciusko County need and they needed in-home palliative care,” he said.

“Palliative care is that service for those patients again that are either chronically ill … and maybe they’re terminal, they’re not pursuing aggressive treatment, but they’re just mentally not ready for hospice yet,” explained Hall.

He said the organization can offer therapy and health care to patients through palliative care and later on they can opt to use Kosciusko Home Care & Hospice’s hospice services if they chose to.

“They’re still fighting to live, but they’re probably not going to get any better,” said Hall regarding palliative care patients. “Now our goal is to help them maintain as long as they can. That’s also the goal with hospice. … People equate hospice with death; well, hospice is about comfort care for those who are dying. It’s not about helping people die; it’s about helping people live comfortably until they die.”

Hall noted Kosciusko Home Care & Hospice’s services were also about providing support for their patients’ families.

For the new program, Hall said they trained current staff members on how to provide the care. Shelley Holderman, who previously was a part-time hospice nurse for the organization, also now serves as clinical community liaison, helping inform people about the program.

Hall said social care workers who assist with Kosciusko Home Care & Hospice’s hospice patients are now helping its palliative care patients as well.

“That’s critical for helping them to navigate (the) health care system,” said Hall.

He noted Kosciusko Home Care & Hospice is still serving its VA (Veterans Affairs) patients.

“So our VA patients who were getting traditional home care, we kept those because No. 1, we feel it’s very important to support our veterans, and No. 2, most of them are chronically ill,” said Hall.

With the new program, Kosciusko Home Care & Hospice aims to serve five palliative care patients a day.

To learn more about utilizing Kosciusko Home Care & Hospice’s services, people may call 574-372-3401 or visit koshomecare.org.