Wissahickon Hospice Of Uphs

Programs: During the year ended june 30, 2017 wissahickon hospice provided uncompensated care, comprised of charity care and the provision for bad debts, totaling $2,150,194 and $1,775,228 for 2016 and 2015, respectively. Wissahickon hospice provides much needed professional and public educational programming. Topics include issues related to end of life care with attention to the needs of both professional and family caregivers. Outreach efforts include workshops, symposia, informational and referral services, web based resources, and audio and video programming. During the year ended june 30, 2017, wissahickon hospice provided the following programs to professionals and the public at little or no charge: education: -leadership participates in curriculum for nursing students on death and dying topics; -staff members provide real life experience training to med students on end of life care (doc 101); -staff members provide monthly classroom education on understanding the role of spiritual and psycho social distress on the disease progression; -partner with the perelman school of medicine to provide medical student rotation through palliative care and hospice. Presented at industry conferences: -succeed by engaging staff at all levels of an organization at national association of home care and hospice; -on hospice payment reform at vnaa and nhpco; -assessing the impact of proposed changes in the hospice rate; -formulated advanced bereavement peer to peer social network group for bereaved indivuiduals who have gone through bereavement support programing to minimize social isolation among bereaved adults. -community outreach programs to support grief and loss were offered throughout the year to the community free of charge. Special programs were offered during difficult holidays: -supporting grieving children and adults during the holidays; -adult support at mother's day. -provided "ask the experts" table side consultations to patients, families and caregivers. Ceu presentations provided throughout the year on: -art and science of the difficult hospice discussion; -last acts- discovering possibility and opportunity at the end of life; -palliative medicine approach in dementia; -transitions in excellence, "meeting the expectations of our clients and health care professionals -children and grief; -held goals of care and death and dying simulations for health system employees; -provided mindfulness workshops to support health system employees; -provided grief support and education to community health workers; -staff support at area nursing homes focused on caregiver and grief burnout; -educational lectures held with social work grad students, med students and nursing students; -agency wide health and wellness committee established to promote self care among employees; -coordinated with future medical students on a student volunteer program through the university of pennsylvania (shoop). Leadership: -hospice leadership serves on national and industry organizations, including the joint commission, national hospice and palliative care organization (nhpco), and visiting nurse association of america (vnaa); -held memorial services at area nursing homes providing support to staff and families; -provide leadership, training and supervision to community health workers serving disenfranchised zip codes in west philadelphia. C0mmunity support/services: -collaborate with the curtis music institute to provide students an opportunity to use music for therapeautic services in an end of life care setting; -developed a program for children and families in their second year of bereavement. The program focuses on normalizing the new family unit. Grief reach: "reinventing family, reinventing fun" is an 8 part series over 24 months bringing grieving families together to engage in activities while remembering their lost loved ones; -monthly bereavement support for individuals completing an 8 week support group. Participants are eligible for 10 additional months; -maintained the elderpac program in collaboration with ralston house, which is a program for the frail elderly concentrated in west philadelphia; -provided community support at health fairs throughout the service area; -sponsored teams at penn radnor run, philadelphia heart walk, and m. S. Bike ride; -held a bereavement camp for children -wissahickon hospice provides an overnight weekend camp for kids, camp erin philadelphia, who have experienced the loss of a loved one. The camp has the elements of a traditional summer camp infused with activities designed to help children with grief and loss issues. There is no charge for children to attend this camp. In fy 2016 90 children attended camp erin philadelphia; -the david bradley children's bereavement program is a valuable and unique community resource available to children and teens at no cost to the families. The program's licensed professional counselor provides individual counseling services - before and after the death of the child's loved one. Part of the mission of the david bradley children's bereavement program is to provide the community with educational materials and support services to encourage discussion and provide methods for children and teens to understand their emotions after the death of a special person in their lives. Our children's bereavement counselor is available as a resource for: teachers and school counselors, community and non profit groups, churches and school seminars, speaking and lecture programs.