Coastal Hospice at the Lake

Description

Mission
Coastal Hospice promotes dignity and quality of life for patients and families who face lifelimiting conditions

Vision
We will provide comfort security and the celebration of lifes joys for all in our community who would benefit from hospice and palliative care

We will anticipate and meet the growing demand for our service in new settings and challenges in the health care environment

We will create in our community a thorough understanding and appreciation of the potential of hospice and palliative care to fulfill the life goals of each individual

We will inspire and empower Coastal Hospice staff to create and implement new ways to enhance each patients hospice and palliative care experience

We value the contribution of each staff member and will challenge and encourage personal and professional growth

Values
Affirming Life
Coastal Hospice believes human life has inherent dignity and is worthy of celebration We hope our patients will live life to its fullest Coastal Hospice will neither hasten nor unduly postpone death for those who are terminally ill We will strive to alleviate pain to provide physical comfort to encourage emotional and spiritual growth to foster reconciliation and to enhance each patients relationships with others

Respect
Coastal Hospice respects the dignity of all who serve and are served by Coastal Hospice We honor each patients privacy and right to make decisions concerning treatment We encourage each colleagues professional development We will foster a work environment characterized by effective teamwork clear direction and recognition of individual contributions

Compassion
Coastal Hospice will respond promptly with our presence to patients and families needing assistance guidance and relief from suffering We encourage caring support communication understanding empathy and listening

Trust
Coastal Hospice provides care and nurtures trust through the development of therapeutic relationships and strong teamwork We will earn and maintain the trust of our patients teammates and community through open honest communication and consistent delivery of quality care

Resourcefulness
Coastal Hospice accomplishes goals through the collective creativity knowledge and skills of team members We are committed to the highest standards of care and continuous quality improvement To assure future stability and growth to meet the diverse needs of the community we are responsible stewards of our resources We pledge to provide care regardless of our patients financial circumstances

History

Twenty six years ago a visionary group of local citizens achieved their first milestone in establishing Coastal Hospice when it became a nonprofit corporation These first hospice volunteers had traveled a long way from the moment one of them mentioned to another at a 1978 social gathering quotDo you think we could have a hospice here on the Eastern Shorequot

Inspired by the example of hospice pioneer Cicely Saunders the volunteers organized a grass roots effort With the help of the Rollie H White Fund they traveled to Montreal to study a model palliative care program and see Cicely Saunders herself They communicated with other newly forming hospice organization across the country Information was freely shared At this birth of the local hospice movement all involved were dedicated to improving the care of those near the end of lifes journey

The movement attracted highly trained physicians homemakers nurses professors social workers attorneys as well as business and religious leaders Originally called the Coastal Hospice Society the groups logo was a ship formed by the letters CHS With it was a quote from G K Chesterton quotWe are all in the same boat in a stormy sea and we owe each other a terrible loyaltyquot Coastal Hospice exists today because community loyalty supported it during the past twenty years

Cicely Saunders once said to a patient quotYou matter because you are youquot She recognized that each of us is a gift to our community which hopefully sustains us in our frailest moments just as it embraces and nurtures us at birth