NorthBay Hospice & Bereavement

Comfort and Dignity for End-of-life Care

Hospice care elevates the quality of life, by relieving pain and symptoms, and providing compassionate support. Hospice is a special philosophy and method of caring for patients and families facing advancing stages of life-limiting illness. With an emphasis on caring for individuals rather than curing a disease, hospice care maintains a patient's comfort while tending to needs of families and friends. The hospice team addresses emotional needs with education and counseling, respite services, spiritual and bereavement support. 

• Hospice care is available in the patient’s home or care facility for all Solano County residents with a doctor’s referral.
• NorthBay Hospice works with insurance companies and provides financial counseling to allow care to be provided with no out-of-pocket cost. No one is turned away due to lack of insurance or financial restraints.
• NorthBay Hospice also cares for the community through educational services and specialized bereavement support for organizations and businesses throughout Solano County.

Hospice Philosophy Affirms Life

Hospice care is about living, not dying -- living in comfort and dignity, without pain and other physical symptoms, and with support of family and friends. Hospice neither hastens nor postpones death, but regards dying as a normal process. NorthBay Hospice care is patient and family centered. The team is dedicated to understanding what makes each individual's final months and weeks of life most meaningful, and working with the patient and family to help achieve that goal.

The NorthBay Hospice Team

A professional, multi-disciplinary team works in collaboration with the patient’s primary care doctor, stressing human values that go beyond the physical needs. The team includes the medical director, Terrell Van Aken, MD, nurses, home health aids, medical social workers, chaplain and volunteers.

Hospice Nurses

• Make regular and emergency visits to assess the patient’s condition and needs, 24 hours a day. Help is just a phone call away.
• Provide expert pain and symptom management.
• Advocate for the patient to receive quality comfort care.
• Teach family members and other caregivers how to help care for the patient.
• Provide support for the patient and the family.
• Explain changes that are occurring and what to expect in the days ahead.

Medical Social Workers

• Offer individual and family counseling.
• Give emotional and psychological support.
• Address grief issues with patient’s caregivers.
• Facilitate communication between family members.
• Provide information about insurance coverage, finances, in-home support, end-of life arrangements and funeral planning.

Home Health Aides

• Make regularly scheduled visits to provide personal care such as bathing, grooming, toileting needs and linen changes.
• Provide emotional support to the patient and family.
• Assist caregivers in providing the best care possible.

Volunteers

• Visit and provide companionship.
• Read to the patient, write letters, do light housekeeping.
• Run errands.
• Stay with the patient to give the caregiver a break.
• Provide emotional support for caregivers.
• Help in other ways that add to quality of life for patient and family.

Spiritual Care Providers

Provide unbiased, individual spiritual and emotional support, regardless of belief system or religious affiliation. The focus of support may be an individual’s relationships with loved ones, or with a higher power, making sense of one’s past, or anticipation of what may lie beyond this life.

• Offer prayer, sacred music, sacraments or scripture reading.
• Facilitation and assistance with planning funeral or memorial services.

Grief Support Helps Cope With Loss

Grief is a normal and natural response to loss, and Hospice is available to help families and friends heal through the grieving process. The bereavement program offers many services:

• Grief Counseling

  Individual counseling with bereavement professional or specially trained volunteers

• Bereavement Support Groups

  Free support groups are offered for children, teens and adults. Anyone in our community grieving the death of someone important in their life can participate in these groups. Group facilitators help participants find ways they can cope with their grief. These programs of bereavement support and counseling are offered at no charge and provide a place to share with others who have also suffered the loss of a loved one. The groups are offered as a community service. No prior association with NorthBay Hospice is required, and there is no fee.

  Adult Bereavement Group

  Thursdays from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m.
  The group is ongoing with occasional breaks. Participants are welcome to join the group at any time during the sessions.

  Call (707) 646-3595 to confirm session dates.
  Adult group meets at NorthBay Center for Primary Care, at 2458 Hilborn Road in Fairfield.

  Meetings start with a brief educational introduction, allowing time for participants to share experiences. Those attending are in all stages of grief, and gain understanding and support from each other as well as from counselors.

  Teen and Children’s Bereavement Groups

  Counselors help children and teens find appropriate ways to express their feelings through art, music, writing and group discussion.

  Groups are held in a series of 8 sessions. Pre-enrollment and parent orientation required. 
  Teen and Young Adult group is recommended for ages 15 to 20.
  Middle School support group is recommended for ages 11 to 14
  Children’s group is recommended for ages 5 to 10.
  

  
  

  Community Outreach

  NorthBay Hospice counselors have formed support groups at local schools to help students cope with deaths in their community. Specialized counseling is also available to local organizations and businesses.

  For more information about how NorthBay Hospice can help, call Veronica Wertz, Hospice Volunteer and Bereavement Coordinator at (707) 646-3595.

   

NorthBay Hospice and Bereavement Volunteer Opportunities

As a Hospice Volunteer, you become a vital member on the professional team who care for the terminally ill and provide support to their loved ones in their homes. Our volunteer program offers opportunities in patient care and in the community.

• Patient Care consists of companionship to patient, support and relief to family members/caretakers, shopping/errands light housekeeping.
• Bereavement volunteers provide continued support to family and friends after the death of a loved one by phone calls or visits and monthly mailings.
• Office Support consists of filing, copying, mailings, assembling packets, bagging supplies for patients, and assembling patient information packets.
• Special Events/Fundraising volunteers assist with the Tree Lighting Ceremony, Memorial Services, and Wine and Food Jubilee.
• Memory Makers work on scrapbook project for families.
• Volunteers are required to complete training depending upon your interest.

If you are interested in volunteering, please contact

Veronica Wertz, Hospice Volunteer/Bereavement Coordinator:
vwertz@northbay.org
(707) 646-3595

 

Frequently Asked Questions:

Who Pays for Hospice Care?

Hospice care is covered by Medicare, Medi-Cal, TriCare and most private insurance carriers. The policy of NorthBay Hospice is to make hospice services available to all who need them, regardless of medical insurance coverage. Charitable contributions to NorthBay Hospice help support availability of services.

When is the Right Time to Consider Hospice?

Hospice care may be requested as soon as a patient decides to end curative care. Even before the final decision is made, a consultation with hospice may be helpful. All too often, referrals are made to Hospice at the very end of a terminal illness, leaving staff unable to address all the needs of the patient and family. When the hospice team is able to assist early with the transition, patients and families are more comforted.

A referral to hospice care does not always mean death is imminent. With attentive care, comfort and peace of mind that comes with addressing end of life decisions, some patients rebound physically as well as mentally. Hospice care can be temporarily or permanently discontinued and curative measures reinstated if a patient improves.

How do I start using Hospice?

Hospice care is available for patients who are medically certified as having a life expectancy of approximately six months or less. Patients may receive a referral for hospice care from their primary care physician or any specialist who can make that diagnosis.

Gifts and Donations

Although private and public insurance pays for part of the cost of hospice care, donations from individuals and business support availability of services in our community. No one is turned away for lack of insurance, and families are not billed by NorthBay Hospice. Contributions ensure a complete hospice program is available to all who need it. Gifts of any size are welcome and tax-deductible to the extent allowable by law.

Call (707) 646-3131
Donations can be mailed to:
NorthBay Healthcare Foundation
4500 Business Center Drive,