PORT TOWNSEND — Hospice programs that help people deal with the end of their lives will become more important as the current generation ages, according to information presented at a fundraising breakfast Thursday.
“We need hospice, and will need it more as years progress,” said Al Bergstein of Port Townsend.
He talked about his firsthand experience with the Jefferson County Hospice program.
“Our bubble of boomers does not have the option of not dying.”
Hospice helped his wife, Karen Bergstein, as she died of cancer in 2005, Bergstein said, calling the services it provided “a lifeline of support” during her final days.
“Having to deal with various extended family issues of death, different religious points of view, legal issues and saying goodbye to friends and family are all emotionally hard things to confront,” Bergstein said.
“Hospice was there with a framework to help it make sense.”
More than 150 people gathered at the Aero Museum for the Hospice Foundation of Jefferson County’s second annual fundraising breakfast.
The program, which provides care at home for terminal patients, is provided under the auspices of Jefferson Healthcare hospital.
“There is an unspoken understanding that when you are given a terminal illness diagnosis that you should ‘put your things in order,’ but that may not include a discussion about what you are about to face and how you are going to face it,” Bergstein said.
“That is the job of hospice,” he said, speaking after a performance by the Threshold Singers, a trio of women who sang soothing a cappella songs that are used as treatment for terminal patients.
Hospice patients enter into the program when they are beyond hope or cure, with the purpose of making their remaining time as pleasant as possible.
According to foundation Executive Director Keri Johns, patients are in the program for an average of 20 days, down from the 180 days of a few years ago.
Although the program receives Medicare funding, supplemental funds are needed to keep it going, Johns said.
“In recent years, our costs have risen, but the payment remains the same,” she said.
Johns said “comfort therapy” — such as reiki, massage, music and acupuncture — have become essential to the hospice process because they can make the patient more comfortable.
Keynote speaker Rabbi Stephanie Reith of the Bet Shira congregation in Port Townsend, talked about how comfort therapy has benefited hospice patients.
“For them, it’s all about comfort,” Reith said.
“They are not in a fancy spa with gurgling fountains and recorded music but in houses crammed with medical gear and medications.”
Reith said strong bonds often develop between comfort therapists and patients.
She told the story of one woman who was skeptical about the power of massage but after several sessions said to the therapist “sometimes, I get so scared, but when you put your hands on me, I know that everything will be OK.”
Later, the family told the therapist that the patient had always dreaded being touched and called the palliative massages “a huge gift.”
The breakfast raised about $13,000 from on-the-spot contributions,with more expected to trickle in, according to board member Cindy McBride, who chaired the event.
The money will be used for comfort care and bereavement support, programs that Medicare does not fund, she said.
“We were able to educate 150 people about what we are doing,” McBride said.
“That in itself was the real benefit.”
For information or to donate, email board President Michael Kubec at michaelkubec@cablespeed.com or phone 360-385-0610.
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Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.