FOR YOUR HEALTH

FOR YOUR HEALTH Volunteers

GIVE BACK TO HOSPICE PATIENTS

Larry and Mary Karls, longtime Billings residents, now retired, are busier than ever, but they make time to volunteer for RiverStone Health Hospice and Hospice Home.

In a training session with half a dozen other volunteers, they learned about their role as volunteers and their responsibilities to protect patient privacy. The nurse providing the training recognized one of the new volunteers as the wife of a recent hospice patient. “You could feel the tenderness,” as the nurse greeted that familiar person, Larry said.

The Karls volunteered at the 2021 RiverStone Health Foundation Hospice Golf Tournament at Laurel Golf Club, serving as hole-in-one watchers. Pandemic precautions have limited opportunities for hospice volunteers recently, but Mary worked at RiverStone Health Hospice Home this summer.

Many volunteers were first family members of Hospice or Hospice Home patients. The compassion and care their loved ones received often sparks acts of kindness as family members choose to give back.

Roxanne Allen, R.N. Director of RiverStone Health Hospice Services

Mary first heard about RiverStone Hospice when Larry’s brother needed end-of-life care. He lived his final days in Horizon Hospice residential facility, the first 24/7 facility started by Riverstone Health Hospice. Inpatient care now is provided in the Hospice Home. Later, RiverStone Health Hospice staff assisted Larry’s mother in her Billings apartment. While Larry and his seven siblings helped care for their mother, the hospice nurse brought the medications needed to keep her comfortable. Professional hospice staff trained family members in how to move their mother safely.

“All the hospice employees were so gentle trying to make things work,” Mary said. “When we decided to volunteer, we thought, ‘we can help other people the same way we were helped.’ ”

Yellowstone County’s first and oldest hospice, RiverStone Health Hospice got its start with volunteers who saw a need to provide end-of-life care to cancer patients. I began working for that first hospice in 1988 and I’ve been working with hospice patients ever since.

Most are served in their own homes, nursing home or a hospice house. When the patient cannot be comfortable and well cared for at home, RiverStone

Larry and Mary Karls

Health Hospice Home on Billings’ West End can provide professional hospice care 24/7 for up to 12 patients in private suites.

The history and traditions of our hospice care are passed on to new staff members. Experienced staff trains new nurses, chaplains, counselors, therapists and aides. Hospice evolves as society and medical science change.

Today, RiverStone Health Hospice and Hospice Home have about 60 full- and parttime employees. They serve cancer patients as well as people with dementia and many other terminal illnesses. After a patient passes away, hospice staff will continue to offer bereavement counseling and support to the survivors.

Like me, some RiverStone Health Hospice volunteers harken back to the early years of hospice in Billings. Hospice staff tend to stay for years. Several of our newer staff members were hired to replace retirees.

RiverStone Health Hospice isn’t profit-driven. It is a community service that can offer a sliding fee scale for patients whose Hospice Home care isn’t covered by insurance or Medicare. RiverStone Health Hospice Home is the only inpatient hospice service in Yellowstone County.

Hospice is a choice for patients and families. I often hear family members say, “I wish we would’ve started sooner.”

Mary says the Hospice Home is homey, not sterile or antiseptic. “My favorite thing is just to sit and visit with them,” she said of the patients. “Some mostly sleep. Some just talk and talk.”

Hospice staff is respectful, Larry said. “They do whatever they can to make patients and families comfortable. If you want ice cream for breakfast three times a day, just tell them. They go out of their way to make the end as peaceful as possible.”

“They are upbeat,” he said. “It’s not all gloom and doom.”

Keeping residents safe is our way of life.

Heidi is our Quality Coordinator. For over 17 years she has provided expert care and services to Westpark Village residents.

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