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Grants to Increase Access to Hospice and Palliative Care for Rural and Homeless Veterans Awarded by National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization

Posted on: Wednesday, 25 February 2009, 08:39 CST

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 25 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization is pleased to announce the recipients of its "Reaching Out" grants. Funded by the Department of Veterans Affairs, the grants program is designed to increase access to hospice and palliative care services for rural and homeless veterans.

Grants have been awarded to eighteen providers that represent a range of community-based organizations. These providers are working collaboratively with their own community partnerships on innovative programs that aim to provide care and services to veterans at the end of life. The grants will contribute funding to each grantee provider for nine months to not only support the success of individual programs, but to ultimately assist the VA in discovering new ways to reach homeless veterans and veterans living in rural areas.

Grant Recipients:

• Arkansas Hospice, Inc., Hot Springs, AR
• California Hospice Foundation, Sacramento, CA
• Colorado Center for Hospice & Palliative Care, Colorado Springs, CO
• Community Health and Counseling Services, Bangor, ME
• Connecticut Association for Home Care & Hospice, Wallingford, CT
• Covenant Hospice, Inc., Pensacola, FL
• Delaware Hospice, Inc., Wilmington, DE
• Hinds Hospice, Fresno, CA
• Hospice & Palliative Care Center, Winston-Salem, NC
• Hospice Life Care, a program of the Holyoke Visiting Nurses Association, Inc., Holyoke, MA
• Hospice of Chattanooga, Inc., Chattanooga, TN
• Hospice of the Bluegrass and Palliative Care Center of the Bluegrass, Lexington, KY
• Hospice of the Foothills, Grass Valley, CA
• Interfaith Sanctuary Housing Services, Boise, ID
• LINK of Hampton Roads, Inc., Newport News, VA
• Michigan Hospice & Palliative Care Organization, Lansing, MI
• New Jersey Hospice & Palliative Care Organization, Scotch Plains, NJ
• Tennessee Hospice Organization, Nashville, TN

Many Americans are unaware that more than 50,000 veterans die each month; that's roughly 28 percent of all deaths in the United States. Nearly 40 percent of enrolled veterans live in areas that are considered rural, where community hospices and VA palliative care programs are often not readily available. On any given night, more than 200,000 veterans are without shelter and lack basic healthcare. Ensuring that all veterans receive compassionate, quality care at the end-of-life is a priority of NHPCO and the Department of Veterans Affairs Hospice and Palliative Care Program.

"This grant program will help us learn from care providers who are currently engaged in veteran partnerships and will offer some best practices to help other end-of-life care providers learn how to reach rural and homeless veterans in need of hospice and palliative care services," commented J. Donald Schumacher, NHPCO president and CEO.

Hospice care is part of the basic eligibility package for veterans enrolled in the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). Hospice services also are covered by Medicare, Medicaid, most managed care organizations, private insurance plans, and HMOs. However, like majority of the American public, most veterans don't know that these options exist.

Information for hospices about providing care to veterans is available at www.nhpco.org/veterans.

For more information on hospice care, please visit NHPCO's Caring Connections at www.caringinfo.org or call the HelpLine at 800-658-8898.

SOURCE National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization

Source: PR Newswire

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