Group fundraising to create end-of-life-care home

Feb. 15--A group of local health care professionals, businesses and passionate individuals are raising money to develop a care home called Solace House of the Ozarks, which will offer free care services for people in their last 30 days of life.

"It's a big gap in our care (in the area)," said Megan Spiering, Solace House board trustee and director of palliative care for Freeman Health System. "We don't have a place for people to live their final days when home is not an option and they can't afford a nursing home -- and there should be more options than just a nursing home."

While Medicare and Medicaid cover hospice care, hospice does not provide 24-hour caregivers, Spiering said. This brings difficulties for families who are not physically capable of caring for their dying loved ones, or who work and cannot stay at home.

"Nor do Medicare or private insurance cover room and board cost at nursing homes," said Lynne Duffield, board trustee and palliative care professional for Freeman. "The only way to have that paid for would be through Medicaid. So the people who aren't eligible for Medicaid who are kind of in between, they don't have enough savings to pay for long-term care ... are really caught between a rock and a hard place."

Everyone who uses Solace House will already have a hospice care provider, which will provide all medical direction and care, Spiering said. Solace House will provide a "home away from home" for guests and their families, and will have volunteers on hand that will be able to step in and help when family members have to be gone for work or need breaks.

The Solace House board has 15 trustees, and it is expecting to receive its 501(c)(3) nonprofit status any day, said Sandy Hughes, board trustee. Hughes joined the effort to make the care home a reality after personally experiencing the stress of caring for her late husband, Roger Hughes, at the end of his battle with cancer.

Hughes said that she lives in a rural area about an hour away from Joplin with no neighbors nearby, which made hospice care difficult.

"That was my husband's wish, was to pass at home," Hughes said. "That commute for the hospice nurses was difficult because they were out of Joplin. During that time with Roger in the house, they were only able to come twice a week for not very long."

Hughes said that when her husband died, she had time to sit back and reflect on that experience, and she became concerned for caregivers who might be elderly, physically disabled or otherwise unable to take care of their family members if they had to go through what Hughes did.

"At that point, it was placed in my heart that I needed to go on a mission to find out how we could change this scenario," she said. "Having looked back, if there had been a facility like the Solace House of the Ozarks, I would have come to them."

The group's first fundraisers took place in October and early February, and organizers plan to host a fundraising event every quarter, Spiering said. So far, between $16,000 and $17,000 has been raised.

"We're going to start with a small pilot home, just a two-bedroom home that will accommodate two guests at a time," she said. "That way we can work our way up. So we are going to want two years of operating costs before we open, just so we can make sure that when we open, we're going to be here in the community to stay."

Solace House will rely completely on donations and grants for funding, and all services will come at no cost to guests and their families. To make a donation to Solace House, visit solacehouseoftheozarks.com or mail checks to P.O. Box 4467, Joplin, MO 64803. The group has a Facebook page.

"I know veterans who would benefit from Solace House, and people who are alone who have no place to go," Hughes said. "We've just got to do this. We've just got to."

Collaboration

Planning for Solace House of the Ozarks is a communitywide collaboration among area hospices, Freeman Health System, Mercy Hospital Joplin, businesses and individuals. It is part of the Omega Home Network, a national organization that promotes the development and expansion of end-of-life community homes.

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