Lou Ann Slater (left) is the bereavement coordinator for Hospice of the Highland Rim and Julia Logan-Mayes is the volunteer coordinator. Hospice of the Highland Rim serves Bedford County, offering an array of services to terminally ill patients and their families. (T-G Photo by Sadie Fowler) [Click to enlarge]

Most people have heard of hospice care, but it's something people don't really become informed about until they need it -- and, often, they need it much earlier than they become informed about it.

Hospice of the Highland Rim has served Bedford and surrounding counties including Cannon, Coffee, Franklin, Grundy and Moore for 12 years.

"Hospice is a multifaceted approach to caring for you and your loved ones when the focus of care switches from curing an illness to providing comfort and peace. It is palliative care focused on symptom management," according to Highland Rim's web site.

Once someone has been determined to have less than approximately six months to live as determined by a doctor, hospice may be called and a nurse will then come out to evaluate that patient. If the patient meets requirements, an interdisciplinary team of Highland Rim employees will almost immediately become available to the patient and their family.

"Hospice provides medical, spiritual, emotional and social care through a team of doctors, nurses, aides, social workers, bereavement coordinators, chaplains and non-medical volunteers," said Sinara Stull O'Donnell in an article published in Community Hospice magazine. "Our goal is care for the whole patient, not just the medical aspect."

Community Hospices of America is the parent company of Hospice of the Highland Rim.

People who qualify suffer from terminal illnesses such as heart disease, lung disease, AIDS, cancer, Alzheimer's, dementia, diabetes, MS, Parkinson's and more. Some of the services Highland Rim provides include relieving a patient's pain, bathing and feeding and emotional and social support. The volunteer staff is an integral part of Highland Rim's team and they'll do almost anything non-medical such as sitting with a patient so the family can have a break, raking leaves or running errands.

There's almost nothing that hospice can't and won't do, and families are often surprised by all the services Hospice of the Highland Rim provides.

"My husband and my father were under hospice care at the same time," said Highland Rim's Volunteer Coordinator Julia Logan-Mayes. "When hospice came in it was like a group of angels coming into my life."

Prior to losing her husband to cancer, Mayes had been a stay-at-home mom for 17 years.

"After my husband died, I knew if I were going to go back to work I was going to do something that meant something."

To know and understand hospice and the comfort and compassion which encompasses it, it is necessary to understand that those who work and volunteer have often been touched by hospice personally.

"Working for hospice is more of a calling, or a ministry," said Mayes. "Somewhere along the lines they've [hospice employees] have had their lives touched by hospice."

Support for the patient and its family doesn't end at the time of death. This is when the bereavement team comes into play, if the family wishes, for up to one year to provide support, in many forms, to those grieving.

Highland Rim offers comfort to patients' families through bereavement visits, phone calls, letters and literature for up to one year following the death of a loved one.

A bereavement support group, headed by Highland Rim's Bereavement Coordinator Lou Ann Slater, is available in Shelbyville every Thursday from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Senior Citizens Center. Other groups are available in Tullahoma at the hospice's main office.

Slater said the groups are a safe place for anyone who has suffered a loss of a loved one. The groups are not limited to those who've called upon hospice. They don't solve problems, but provide a group of caring people that will listen, relate and share their personal experiences with grief and overcoming it.

Hospice is paid for through private insurance, Medicare and Medicaid, and once called upon, a social worker will visit with the family to explain financial issues, which is often comforting to the family.

To volunteer for hospice, or for more information about Hospice of Highland Rim, visit www.hospiceofthehighlandrim.org, or call their Tullahoma office at (931) 455-9118.

"Now, or at some time in the future, you may be in the situation of helping a loved one through the dying process," said O'Donnell. "We say: 'You are not alone. We at hospice are here to provide medical, emotional, social and spiritual care on your (or a loved one's) end-of-life journey.'"