Following her experience with local hospice care just more than two years ago, Borderland resident Etta Millard has since been a strong advocate of the program.
Etta, who along with her husband, Len, decided to use Fairview Range Home Care and Hospice of International Falls when Len was diagnosed terminally ill with cancer.
Fairview Range Home Care and Hospice serves most of Koochiching County as the only Medicare Certified hospice provider in the area, and has had as few as three and as many as 19 people on hospice on any given day. Annually, employees serve 32 people on average. Hospice covers care for patients on Medicare who have a prognosis of six months or less, as it is a benefit of a person’s Part A Medicare insurance. It is also a benefit of medical assistance, veterans assistance, and most private insurance coverage.
And with November being nationally recognized as Hospice and Palliative Care Month, Etta, and others involved, are coming together to bring awareness to the community about Borderland’s hospice program.
“When someone receives a prognosis of six months or less, they often have spent the last several months in fight mode, going to doctors and doing everything they can to prolong life,” said Polly Hebig, branch supervisor of Fairview Range Home Care and Hospice. “To get to the point where you are no longer ‘fighting’ can be difficult for some. We explain it this way: You may not be fighting anymore, but living.
“When you know you are going to die, several things change — a person’s priorities change, hope changes. We help people through that shift from hoping for a cure or remission to hoping for a good day today, whatever that looks like. We help facilitate people to live life to the fullest now, not waiting for tomorrow. What most people want is to die at home — we help make that happen by empowering families to care for their loved ones right where they are most comfortable — at home.”
Etta added that the benefits, among many, for patients and their caregivers include not having to be in a hospital setting, having hospice employees come once or twice a week, having questions answered over the phone, and not feeling like, as a caregiver, you are alone.
“They help the patient decide to make that choice,” she said of Fairview’s employees. “Once Len decided what was going to happen, then he absolutely ran the circus, he was hilarious. What hospice does is allow people to have control over their death — control the setting, control the rules...”
“We want to alleviate suffering, however that looks. Our team approach has expertise in not only the physical care, like pain and nausea, but also emotional or spiritual care,” added Hebig. “Just having the month to recognize this unique program, illuminates the truth: You don’t have to go through it alone. We are able to walk alongside individuals with a life-limiting diagnosis and their families.”
Etta also highlighted how powerful it was to make the decision together with Len about choosing hospice care.
“The partnership that Len and I had in his death...it deepens the relationship and gives the survivor peace,” she said. “You can know that you were as much a part of that person’s death as you were their life...it’s very comforting. Even though the grief hits you like grief does, you have that knowledge.”
Len was in hospice from April to June 2016.
“It does require a lot of the caregiver — but the caregiver doesn’t ever have to be alone in this situation,” Etta continued. “If you want to see a doctor, you can, but your nurses are totally well-trained. Our team is awesome — they come regularly, they know what’s going on, they really are supportive. You have eyes on your patient all the time. All bases are covered.”
But it also makes economic sense, Etta pointed out.
“I was left with no bills,” she said. “In a nutshell, once you have that terminal diagnosis and once you decide that this is it — which that’s not easy, I’m not making light of it... If (the patient) thinks that dying at home surrounded by family is what they want the obituary to say, then hospice absolutely allows that and supports that. I think it’s important for people to know it’s there.”
Etta is also a regular volunteer and heads up Fairview’s “Tuck In” program because, put simply, she believes in hospice so much, she said. Through the “Tuck In” program, families are called on Thursdays to ensure they have all the supplies they may need for the weekend. Volunteers go through a thorough training, which helps them understand they are a part of a team that cares about and for the client and the family and respects their confidentiality at all times, she added. Hospice also provides volunteers with continuing education.
“If we think of hospice care as a prescription written by a doctor to ‘treat’ the needs of a patient as they face the end of their life, then the volunteer is part of that prescription,” Etta said. “On some level, we all know the road. We volunteer to provide support and comfort on the journey. I think hospice was made for a community like ours.”
Fairview has been a Medicare Certified Hospice since 2007, when Fairview acquired Koochiching Hospice, which was a volunteer hospice. Fairview also partners locally with Koochiching Health Services and all the assisted living centers in the area.
For more information about the hospice services they offer, call Borderland’s local Fairview at 218-283-3031.
