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“This (program) is the best thing that has happened to me,”
Jurado said. “They give their patients a lot of love. They are
available 24-7.”
Jurado is one of the few Latinos turning to the hospice to care
for their terminally-ill family members.
The New Life
Hospice staff is trying to reach out to the Latino community – a
community that despite its growing numbers in Lorain County, is
seeking the hospice’s services in much lower numbers than other
ethnicities.
The New Life Hospice staffs are trying to bridge the racial gap
of patients by educating members of the Latino community of its
services at various local churches, by providing mandatory
training to all employees on how to better understand the Latino
community, and by training Latino volunteers to attend the home
with other non-Spanish speaking employees.
The hospice also provides all documents in Spanish. The next
annual mandatory “Communicating with the Latino Community,”
training will be November of 2008.
New Life Hospice is a program member of the
Community Health Partners
that provides care and support to families and individuals
dealing with a terminal illness. The hospice program provides
each patient with a nurse, home health
aid, social worker, chaplain and volunteers that treat
the patient in the private home, nursing home or assisted living
facility.
About 13 units for housing patients are also available within
the Hospice Center of St. Joseph, located at
3700 Kolbe Road, Lorain,
Ohio.
Ocasio and Navarro serve the Latino community
Two Latino employees, Joe Ocasio, registered nurse, and
Sylvia Navarro, home health aide, of
New Life Hospice, put together
the mandatory trainings and travel to churches for other
outreach presentations to the Latino community.
Ocasio, of Lorain and Puerto Rican
decent, said Latinos are not turning to the hospice to care for
their loved ones because they prefer to take care of their own
family members in the home, and because of misconceptions about
these types of programs within the Latino community. One
misconception is ‘believing that the family will be separated
from the terminally-ill patient.’
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“The Spanish community, we don't do very well with the dying
process. We Latinos want to take care of our own,” Ocasio said
“But (this outreach program) it's to get them to understand that
dying is not a bad thing and there is help available. We can
help them in their own home.”
Ocasio said he also visits six patients daily in various
locations. During visits, Ocasio checks patients’ vital signals
and checks and manages any problematic symptoms that are causing
the patient distress.
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Ocasio said these services are needed and beneficial. “Families
don’t realize how draining it is to take care of a patient at
home. You’re going to see the decline over time; it's physically
and emotionally draining,” Ocasio said.
“We are a spiritually-based, a Catholic-based program. We
believe life goes on. The goal now is that our loved ones can
die with dignity,” Ocasio said.
These two Latino employees travel to various churches in Lorain
County to educate the Latino community about its services. Both
Navarro and Ocasio, for example, presented the next “Ministry of
Hospice” on August 7th at the Sacred Heart Chapel,
located on
Pearl Avenue in Lorain.
Navarro, of Lorain and Puerto Rican descent, said she visits
about six patients every day at nursing homes or in their
private homes. Navarro, Esperanza’s home health aid, said she is
taking care of two Latino patients.
“It's sad that we have dreadful diseases out there, but it's
comforting to know that you are not alone,” Navarro said. “I
don't like seeing my people die, but it's like an inner peace
inside of me that I feel when I can help them. It's something
that Jesus taught us to do, to take care of others,” Navarro
said.
Despite the high population of Latinos in the
Lorain County region, only 4
percent of Latino patients used the hospice’s services in 2007 -
a figure much lower than for other ethnicities, said Joan
Hanson, director of the New Life Hospice in Elyria.
The program provides patients with hospital beds, oxygen tanks,
wheelchairs, walkers, and shower chairs. Hospice drivers pick up
medicines for patients at the nearest pharmacies. A bereavement
counseling and support program is available for a family up to
15 months after the death of the patient. The program is covered
in full through Medicare and Medicaid or other health insurance
plans. Hanson said the hospice will help cover the patient and
funeral costs for those without health insurance.
“I learned the Latino culture has a commitment for caring for
their own. We have to be cautious of going into their homes and
not understanding the relationship with their loved ones,”
Hanson said.
“We will give them some guidance and teach them what they need
to do for their loved ones. We don’t want to change their ways;
we want to meet them half way,” Hanson concluded.
For more information contact New Life Hospice (located on
North Abbe Road
in Elyria, Ohio) at
440-934-1458
or
440-960-4900
or log onto their Web site at: http://216.68.156.42/regions/Lorain/content/hospice.asp
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