I appreciated Patricia Dooley’s recent letter in the ADN about the rewards of volunteering with local hospice organizations in Southcentral Alaska, and would like to extend her kind words to the volunteers of our local organization, Hospice of Homer.
This organization has operated on the Kenai Peninsula since 1985, and was started by a group of local residents who recognized the need which existed in our area, and began putting together the kind of service, often in their own homes, which is now offered to a large swath of the Kenai Peninsula, including Ninilchik, Seldovia and villages such as Nanwalek, by Hospice of Homer, which endeavors to reach out to those areas not able to be included in the area served by the hospice organization of Soldotna, the Kenai Peninsula’s largest city.
HOH maintains a very active medical equipment loan program, trains volunteers to support families and individuals dealing with disastrous illness and caregiving for family members in our rural setting, provides grief counseling and support, and continually seeks to provide resources, such as non-medical comfort supplies — lotions, sterile gloves, bedding protectors and incontinence items — free of charge to the local population.
No one is turned away from access to these items, whether or not they are formally hospice clients being supported by the in-home volunteers who assist with shopping, driving to medical appointments, yard work, household assistance or simply provide company and companionship for vulnerable members of our community. Hospice of Homer is supported largely by donations from our community, as well as a variety of grant funds from various sources, and serves as a recycling center for expensive medical equipment such as walkers, wheelchairs, hospital beds, etc., all carefully maintained for safety and stability by a dedicated volunteer. All this is done with the effort of a truly skeletal paid staff and a small army of trained volunteers. We are very proud of the service we are able to offer our community in collaboration with other such organizations on the Kenai Peninsula and throughout Alaska, and as a retired staff member and current volunteer, I urge community members to reach out to their own local organizations for more information on how to volunteer or help in some other manner.
— Carol R. Dee
Homer
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