What's News at Appalachian Community?

The Appalachian Community Hospice Casserole Comfort Volunteers bring kindness to the table by providing heat-and-eat meals for hospice clients and their caregivers. Once a month, the volunteers meet at The Appalachian Center for Economic Networks’ (ACEnet) kitchen to cook an assortment of casseroles to provide comfort and support to busy hospice families. The cooking service is heating up in its second year, thanks to Volunteer Coordinator Christie Truly, who heads the project, and volunteering community members and students from the Ohio University Heritage College of Oesteopathic Medicine. Donations of nonperishable food ingredients or cash donations to buy ingredients for the casseroles are welcome. For more information about donating or volunteering, please contact Chrsitie Truly: 740-594-8226 ext. 475
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Appalachian Community received several generous grants in the past year for special projects and much needed equipment. A recent $1,700 grant from The Athens Foundation will purchase pulse oximeter technology for the agency’s newest nurses. Each of our nurses and therapists carries a dedicated pulse oximeter, a small device for measuring blood oxygen levels, when caring for clients at home. In addition, Appalachian Community was awarded an earlier grant from the foundation for $1,180 to provide grief and bereavement materials. Community members who have experienced a loss received CareNote booklets, journals that allow the writer to reflect on the death of their loved one and examine other aspects of their relationship. Children's books about grief and loss were also purchased at The Athens Book Center through the grant, along with DVDs that provide training for staff and volunteers about how to cater to hospice clients.

A Targeted Industry Grant of $1,688 from the Tri-County Adult Career Center helped to pay for staff development training in such areas as customer service, effective management, and team building, as well as to facilitate the development of a new strategic plan. The Charles G. O’Bleness Foundation awarded the agency $7,080 to support our marketing campaign. The funds will help pay for radio and print advertising, enabling us to compete with the many large, for-profit home health agencies moving into our area.

Epstein Teicher Philanthropies awarded the agency $50,000 to support development of a pilot project headed by palliative care expert Dr. Tracy Marx, Appalachian Community’s Hospice Medical Co-director and Hospice Physician Liaison. The project, Breaking Boundaries, provides comprehensive, interdisciplinary care for those suffering with chronic life-threatening illnesses. It will examine whether a different model of care provision, similar to the hospice model of care, can generate better outcomes for people with chronic illnesses, such as fewer hospitalizations and less medication. An important part of the project focuses on developing relationships with clients and families earlier in the disease trajectory and on subjects’ and care providers’ exploration of a deeper understanding of the human condition and the quality of life through the use of story and creative arts.  

A collaborator on this component of the project, Ohio University photojournalism student Rebecca Miller, was also awarded a grant of $1,000 from PhotoPhilanthropy, a group aimed at promoting social change through photography (more on Rebecca’s project). Epstein Teicher Philanthropies has awarded a more recent grant of $50,000 to the agency to support a music program for hospice clients.

Milena Miller, Director of Development, was awarded a $400 scholarship from The Ohio Association of Healthcare Philanthropy (OAHP) to be used towards regional or national conference fees. OAHP bi-annual state conferences offer health care providers the opportunity to enhance personal and professional growth, hosting dynamic speakers and workshops regarding development in the health care field. Miller applied the scholarship to the fall OAHP conference in Dublin, Ohio last fall. Watch for updates to come.

Appalachian Community Hospice is benefiting from a new program that will recycle used hearing aids to help hospice patients hear. Diles Hearing Center, established by Bill Diles, retired Athens Audiologist and recent hospice client,* will take donations of used hearing aids from their patients who upgrade. Diane McVey, current audiologist at Diles, will provide Appalachian Community Hospice clients with a hearing exam and fitting of the donated hearing aids.

Read more in The Athens Messenger.