End-of-Life Care - Hospice Legacy
Hospice Legacy--originally founded as Hospice of Pasadena
Hospice of Pasadena was founded in 1978 for the purpose of providing not-for-profit, charitable
care and treatment to terminally ill children and adults and those close to them. This was one of the first hospice programs in California and was organized as a community partnership involving the Visiting Nurse Association, Huntington Hospital and Fuller Seminary.
After the Medicare hospice benefit was established in the late 1980s, Hospice of Pasadena focused its efforts on providing volunteer support and bereavement counseling, eventually leaving Pasadena and the West San Gabriel Valley without a nonprofit medical hospice.
Partners in Care took Hospice of Pasadena under its wing in 2001 to help re-establish its leadership in the field of end-of-life care. By supporting board development, facilitating large and innovative grants and stimulating active partnerships with Huntington Hospital and the San Gabriel Valley End-of-Life Care Coalition, Partners breathed new life into Hospice of Pasadena. Partners also contributed I Count Too! Program, a grief support program for families with children, to Hospice of Pasadena.
From this new position of strength, the next step was to come full circle and restore not-for-profit medical hospice to the Pasadena area. In July 2006, the ongoing operations of Hospice of Pasadena became part of the certified and accredited hospice programs of Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital in Whittier.
The impact of Hospice of Pasadena will continue by developing non-profit, home hospice to the West San Gabriel Valley through Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital. The original nonprofit corporation, however, retained its assets and changed its name to Hospice Legacy, which is still an integral part of Partners in Care Foundation. Hospice Legacy will continue to develop new models of palliative care at home and assure the continuation of volunteer support for terminally ill patients.
Partners in Care continues to be a member of the San Gabriel Valley End-of-Life Coaltion which created a very powerful training manual: "End of Life Issues for Volunteers in Faith Communities" with funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Faith in Action Program.
End of LIfe Issues: Preparing Volunteers to Support Members Dealing with Dying Manual
Not-for-profit organizations are free to duplicate the manual as long as credit is given to the San Gabriel End-of-Life Coaltion and the Faith in Action initiative.
Please notify us if you download and plan to use the materials so that we may notify the funder. Thank you.
