By By JOHN EBY / Dowagiac Daily News
Her dad is the reason Ann Hill joined Cass County Hospice 20 years ago.
Daniel O'Connell, founder of O'Connell's restaurants, died alone in a large Chicago hospital at 9 p.m. - an hour after she was shooed out of his room when visiting hours ended at 8.
Her brother, Michael O'Connell, came away so impressed he intended to become a volunteer.
Hill, whose son just returned safely from Afghanistan, used a program to Dowagiac Rotary Club Thursday noon at Elks Lodge 889 to clear up several "misconceptions" about hospice care.
Hospice care since 1982 has been a Medicare benefit, though "hardly anybody knows about it," she said. "If you're 65 or over, that benefit pays for all the services provided by Hospice - all the medication, all the equipment needed in a home, the nursing visits, the chaplain, the medical director, our social worker and 60 volunteers."
Hospice serves about 80 people per year between Cass and Van Buren counties from its Decatur office, which is a division of Hospice Care of Southwest Michigan in Kalamazoo.
Rose Arbor is a 16-bed residential facility. "People from Cass County go up there," she said. "Let me say that my dream is that we will have one here in Dowagiac someday and be able to serve the community directly. Space is a big divider. I remember when we moved from our little office behind the hospital to Decatur to better serve our clients in both counties because response time is very important. It was a long way for nurses to drive from Dowagiac to Gobles. Volunteers had a difficult time with that. I myself feel that way, although Decatur is extremely close and extremely supportive of Hospice. But I think we need a residence here, in this county, to serve our people here. They can't stay at home but they do not want to be in nursing homes."
More than those 80 people, Hospice offers 13-month bereavement counseling to families to get through "all those firsts" of birthdays and holidays.
Another important thing to remember is that all hospices are not alike, Hill said. "We have been non-profit for 20 years. Our money must go back into the care of our clients. That is our priority. We reinforce, listening to them on how they want to spend their time. We see what we can do to make those months, weeks, days valuable and as pain-free as possible using the resources of a community the social worker puts together. We offer a smorgasbord of services that people don't even know about."
She spoke as the guest of David Cook, who said, "Blessed are the people like Ann who, in my words, are there to hold our hands through the scary part."
What some might decree "depressing work" depends "on your philosophy of life and death," Hill said. "We all are going to die. If you have some comfort with that, and realize how important it is to people to have support, it's a joy to do this work. It's a joy to work with people at a private time of life when hardly anybody else gets in, we are invited in and we make dear friends. We are taught how to live. It's an ongoing education for us, as well. That's part of the richness of it."
However, Hill said, "If you're under 65, that's a problem. So many people of this community don't have medical insurance that they can draw on. That's why we do fundraisers. That's why Take Off with Hospice is so marvelous. We care for everyone who needs our help. We turn no one away. Our mission is to serve. We're non-profit. We're nurtured by United Way in Cass County. The people of this county have been very generous. But I'm not here to ask you to play golf with us June 23. I'm asking you to tell other people that there's help. Families don't have to do it alone."
Medicare monitors hospice care, "so we have to keep very good records," she said. "We evaluate all of our clients on a regular basis to make sure they're declining. We discharge people from hospice" once their medications are properly adjusted and they feel better.