Photo provided A vision board with what “refreshed” patient and family rooms will look like is shown at Our Hospice.
Our Hospice of South Central Indiana has officially launched a $2 million capital campaign to refresh and modernize the hospice center and its facilities that first opened in 2003, all to make their spaces feel like home, honor the past and rebuild the future, Our Hospice Palliative & Personal Care of South Central Indiana president Steph Cain said.
“It’s different than a hospital and being the first hospice center in the state of Indiana, our communities that we serve have come to expect and they look forward to when that time comes being able to use the hospice center, so we’ve taken care of thousands of patients and families through the years,” Cain said.
Gifts can be made at ourhospice.org/capitalcampaign/. People may also contact Our Hospice director of resource development Terry Frederiksen at 812-314-8004 or at tfrederiksen@ourhospice.org to work through how they want to make their gift. Naming opportunities, ranging from $5,000 to $250,000, are also available for spaces and rooms.
The center provides hospice care in an environment that strives to feel like home, according to Our Hospice. Services including counseling, spiritual support and activities are offered as well for residents, and even after a loved one has passed, Our Hospice follows families for 14 months for bereavement counseling, Cain said.
Updates are being made to the center’s 14 patient rooms with new features for staff members, such as updated infection control and oxygen in the walls as opposed to oxygen tubing in the floor. The center’s two family rooms, which offer amenities like a kitchen and work stations, will also see updates in addition to their chapel, nursing areas and library, Cain said.
“We’re going to have a dementia friendly room for our patients because some of them come respite and so they can come for five days of respite, Medicare will pay for that,” Cain said. “And a lot of times they may have dementia or they’re wandering around and they just need activities so we’ll have activities for them that will be comforting and we just love on them. We take good care of those folks…”
Interior designer Lindsey Hooker with Creative Concepts, Inc., who Our Hospice contracted to design the rooms, utilized natural colors including blues, greens and browns to help patients feel like the outside has been brought inside their room, Cain said. A legacy wall will also be built to honor original donors, which Cain said is rare.
“That only comes when you’re building a unique building like that, and so to be able to have that a second time is pretty awesome for the community,” Cain said.
Construction, awarded to Dunlap Inc. following an Requst for Proposals, has started on one family room and one patient room. Cain said the goal is to have these rooms completed before Christmas to serve as model rooms. She would like for them to complete their fundraising process and continue construction in 24 months, but donors can make a pledge for up to three to four years.
About half a million dollars have been raised already from past and new donors, with a majority of donors being local community members, Frederiksen said. Cain expects to reach the goal, and people’s gifts will provide Our Hospice and its staff modern facilities they need to secure compassionate and personalized end-of-life care for decades to come.
“It isn’t like we just want to redecorate, it’s deeper than that,” Cain said. “It needs a thoughtful renovation, updating things from a safety perspective for our staff and just really making sure we’re having the latest and greatest for our community as they’ve come to expect.”
