TRU

Caring For Our Community Since 1976.

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March Is National Social Work Month

March 13, 2017 by TRU Community Care

National Social Worker Month

Image credit: Mitch Rosen

March has been recognized as National Social Work Month. As core members of the hospice, home health, and TRU PACE interdisciplinary teams, social workers carry an incredible responsibility to support not only patients but also families in their unique end-of-life journeys. At TRU, social workers also provide grief counseling and make up a significant portion of our grief counselor team.

Please join us in recognizing our immensely talented group of social workers in all areas of our organization……BRAVO!

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: National Social Work Month

How Does Hospice Add to Life?

January 27, 2017 by TRU Community Care

TRU Community Care

 

MYTH: People on hospice are in bed, waiting to die.
FACT: Hospice enables special moments and memories at the end of a life that would otherwise not happen.

Our patient Tom called hospice because he wanted to live happily and with dignity, restoring a quality of life that he would have otherwise lost to invasive treatments and surgeries. When Tom’s needs were too much to handle at home, he moved to the TRU inpatient care center, where our staff made sure Laura was comfortable, too. They arranged Tom in his bed and made room so she could slip in beside him. Suddenly this man, who had been so strong, was vulnerable. Staff could see that and were responsive to his pain and to the myriad emotions Laura was feeling, too.

Read about another special moment – a wedding at the TRU Care Center!

To learn more about what TRU Community Care can do for you and your family, call 303.442.0961 or visit trucare.org.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: hospice myths, hospice facts

Savvy Caregiver Group Begins in April

January 23, 2017 by TRU Community Care

elderly coupleAre you a caregiver who wants to better understand dementia, increase your confidence, and reduce the adverse effects of caregiving? The Longmont Senior Center can help! This FREE 6-week course is led by Jessica O’Leary, MA, a gerontologist and specialist in dementia.

Please note: this course is for those caring for a friend or loved one and is not for professional caregivers. It also is for caregivers of those with early or mid-stage dementia.

When: Wednesdays 6 – 8 pm from April 5 thru May 10

Where: Longmont Senior Center located at 910 Longs Peak Ave in Longmont, CO

Advanced registration required! Beginning Feb. 13 please call 303.651.8411

Filed Under: Uncategorized

When Does Hospice Care End?

January 20, 2017 by TRU Community Care

TRU Community Care

 

MYTH: Hospice care ends when someone dies.
FACT: Hospice organizations offer bereavement services for all ages.

Hospice counseling services that deal specifically with grief and coping after the loss of a loved one are available at no cost for up to a year after someone dies. For example, TRU Community Care patient Tom’s wife, Laura, credits hospice as something that she and her family can always look back and reflect on in a positive way. “TRU’s grief counselor helped me heal immensely during such a difficult time.”

Check out more hospice myths and facts.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: hospice myths, hospice facts

Who Cares for You When You’re in Hospice?

January 13, 2017 by TRU Community Care

TRU Community Care

 

MYTH: Hospice means strangers care for you.
FACT: Hospice provides a dedicated team of specialists to suit the needs of each patient and educate family members to serve as caregivers.

TRU Community Care strives to educate family members to serve as the primary caregivers for an end-of-life patient. For example, TRU Community Care patient Tom’s wife, Laura, said, “I learned to more willingly lean on others, to allow others – hospice staff, family, friends – to assist with Tom’s care – giving him a wider circle to help care for him during his final weeks.”

Check out more hospice myths.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: hospice myths, hospice facts

Does Hospice Mean Forgoing All Medical Treatment?

January 12, 2017 by TRU Community Care

Medical treatment does not stop simply because you're in hospice care.

Medical treatment does not stop simply because you’re in hospice care.

MYTH: Hospice means forgoing all medical treatment.
FACT: Hospice nurses and physicians are experts in the latest medications and devices for pain and symptom relief.

In every case, a hospice provider will assess the needs of the patient, deciding which medications and equipment are needed for maximum comfort. For example, our TRU patient Tom’s care team helped him maintain mobility and strength and improve his self-care while he was still at home. Once he was transferred to our inpatient care center, we assessed his medications for maximum comfort.

Check out more hospice myths and facts.

 

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: hospice myths, hospice facts

Hospice Care Doesn’t Have to Mean Leaving Home

January 11, 2017 by TRU Community Care

You can receive hospice care wherever you call home.

You can receive hospice care wherever you call home.

MYTH: Hospice care means leaving home.
FACT: Hospice services can be provided in a patient’s own home, a nursing home, long-term care facility or a hospice care center.

Hospice is not a place. In fact, hospice services can be provided to a terminally ill patient and his or her family wherever they are most comfortable, or wherever they consider “home.”

In the living room, a father laughs and reminisces with his children over the silly things they did during childhood. Later, he joins the family to say grace before enjoying a meal together. Moments like these may seem ordinary to most. Would it surprise you to know that this man, Tom, is dying and receiving care from hospice? When Tom was diagnosed with advanced metastatic prostate cancer, the term hospice disturbed him at first. But when TRU arrived on his doorstep, he knew he had a team of caregivers whom he could rely on.

Tom’s wish was to make sure he was able to stay home for as long as possible at the end of his life. TRU made it possible for Tom’s wife, Laura, to get the assistance she needed while caring for Tom full time.

Check out more hospice myths and facts.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: hospice facts, hospice myths

TRU Community Care Interim CEO Crafts Heartfelt Weekly Emails to Employees

January 3, 2017 by TRU Community Care

TRU Community Care’s Interim CEO, Pat Mehnert, writes an email each week to all TRU Community Care and TRU Hospice of Northern Colorado employees. Staff look forward to reading these emails, as Pat truly takes the time to gather and compose her thoughts before clicking Send. Her emails contain guidance on daily operations, program updates, patient stories, kudos and appreciation for employees (especially those who work evenings and weekends at our inpatient care centers), quotes she’s heard, and even a little movie trivia.

These weekly emails aren’t just a few ideas thrown together at the last minute. Rather, they are words strung together with the utmost appreciation for staff; sentences that tell a story about the amazing hospice care and supportive services TRU provides day in and day out; and paragraphs that weave a testament to the Trusted, Responsive, and Unparalleled care TRU seeks to provide not only to our community, but to each other.

In last week’s email, Pat shared a poem that is near and dear to her, so we thought we’d share it with you, too.

When helping someone who is suffering,

I hope for comfort and courage.

I try to help find gratitude

In the midst of their painful circumstances.

Companioning one through their experience

Begins with a simple yes.

When I am called upon,

I don’t know what I am stepping into

Or how I might help.

But I walk with them on their journey,

And eventually it becomes evident.

The source of all mercy and healing

Makes some good come out of the pain.

I am in awe that somehow

My simple yes when called upon

Allows me to be part of it all.

I end up

Being graced

In my helping of others.

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Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Weekly CEO Email, Pat Mehnert

Myths of Hospice Care

December 21, 2016 by TRU Community Care

bearded elderly manIn the living room, a father laughs and reminisces with his children over the silly things they did during childhood. Later, he joins the family to say grace before enjoying a meal together. Moments like these may seem ordinary to most. Would it surprise you to know that this man, Tom, is dying and receiving care from hospice?

Many people think that being on hospice means lying in a bed, barely conscious. Tom is a patient who proves that is not the case. Many of his final moments were anything but ordinary, and they would not have been possible without the help of hospice.

Tom’s experience is not unique. The mission of hospice is to provide specialized care for end-of-life patients and their families. More simply, hospice care supports living one’s life to the fullest with dignity regardless of how much time remains.

When Tom was diagnosed with advanced metastatic prostate cancer, the term hospice disturbed him at first. But when TRU arrived on his doorstep, he knew he had a team of caregivers whom he could rely on.

Here are some of the common myths of hospice we’d like to clear up for you:

MYTH: Hospice care means leaving home.
FACT: Hospice services can be provided in a patient’s own home, a nursing home, long-term care facility or a hospice care center.

Hospice is not a place. In fact, hospice services can be provided to a terminally ill patient and his or her family wherever they are most comfortable, or wherever they consider “home.” Tom’s wish was to make sure he was able to stay home for as long as possible at the end of his life. Hospice made it possible for Tom’s wife, Laura, to get the assistance she needed while caring for Tom full time.

MYTH: Hospice means forgoing all medical treatment.
FACT: Hospice nurses and physicians are experts in the latest medications and devices for pain and symptom relief.

In every case, a hospice provider will assess the needs of the patient, deciding which medications and equipment are needed for maximum comfort. For example, Tom’s care team helped him maintain mobility and strength and improve his self-care while he was still at home. Once he was transferred to our inpatient care center, we assessed his medications for maximum comfort.

MYTH: Hospice means strangers care for you.
FACT: Hospice provides a dedicated team of specialists to suit the needs of each patient and educate family members to serve as caregivers.

TRU Community Care strives to educate family members to serve as the primary caregivers for an end-of-life patient. In addition, Tom’s wife Laura said, “I learned to more willingly lean on others, to allow others – hospice staff, family, friends – to assist with Tom’s care – giving him a wider circle to help care for him during his final weeks.”

MYTH: Hospice care ends when someone dies.
FACT: Hospice organizations offer bereavement services for all ages.

Hospice counseling services that deal specifically with grief and coping after the loss of a loved one are available at no cost for up to a year after someone dies. Tom’s wife Laura credits hospice as something that she and her family can always look back and reflect on in a positive way. “TRU’s grief counselor helped me heal immensely during such a difficult time.”

MYTH: People on hospice are in bed, waiting to die.
FACT: Hospice enables special moments and memories at the end of a life that would otherwise not happen.

Tom called hospice because he wanted to live happily and with dignity, restoring a quality of life that he would have otherwise lost to invasive treatments and surgeries. When Tom’s needs were too much to handle at home, he moved to the TRU inpatient care center, where our staff made sure Laura was comfortable, too. They arranged Tom in his bed and made room so she could slip in beside him. Suddenly this man, who had been so strong, was vulnerable. Staff could see that and were responsive to his pain and to the myriad emotions Laura was feeling, too.

To learn more about what TRU Community Care can do for you and your family, call 303.442.0961 or visit trucare.org.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: myths of hospice, facts of hospice

Don’t Wait to Talk About Hospice

December 14, 2016 by TRU Community Care

elderly manIt’s an all too common situation. A family is at the bedside of a loved one who is seriously ill and nearing the end of life. Each member of the family has a different idea of what should be done and what the patient would have wanted.

Far too many people wait until they are in the midst of a health care crisis before thinking about what options are available or what type of care they or their loved ones would have wanted.

Often, by waiting too long to learn about possible options, like hospice care, people end up spending difficult days in the hospital or the emergency room and opportunities to be with loved ones at home are lost.

What Is Hospice Care?

When a family is coping with a serious illness and a cure is no longer possible, hospice provides the type of care most people say they want at the end of life: comfort and dignity. Considered to be the model for high-quality, compassionate care for people with a life-limiting illness, hospice care includes expert medical care, pain management, and emotional and spiritual support. Care is provided by an inter-disciplinary team of professionals and trained volunteers. The wishes of the patient and family are always at the center of care.

Most hospice care is provided in the home – where the majority of Americans have said they would want to be at this time. Care is also provided in nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and hospice centers, wherever the patient resides.

Who Pays for Hospice?

Hospice is paid for by Medicare, Medicaid, and most private insurance plans and HMOs, and patients with advanced illness are eligible for hospice when the have a life expectancy of six months or less. Many hospice patients live longer than expected when they begin receiving the high-quality care that the hospice team provides. On average, hospice patients live another 21 days beyond their peers who did not receive hospice services.

In addition, TRU Community Care is a local nonprofit 501[c]3 hospice; we will not deny an eligible hospice patient care due to lack of ability to pay for services.

TRU Community Care provides families with information about care options that help to ensure patients live as fully as possible throughout their entire life.

One of the best ways to make sure you and your loved ones benefit fully from hospice, should you ever need this care, is to talk about it before it becomes an issue. Remember, the sooner you call us, the more we can help. 303.442.0961

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: hospice, insurance, hospice benefits

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About TRU

TRU Community Care (TRU) affirms life at every step of your journey with illness and loss. Our vision is to lead a healthcare transformation by engaging with our communities and offering innovative, meaningful care for those living with illness and loss.

Founded as Boulder Hospice in 1976, TRU is a Colorado-licensed, Medicare and Medicaid-certified, nonprofit health care organization serving Boulder, Broomfield, Adams, Jefferson, Arapahoe, Denver, and Weld Counties and beyond. With a focus on providing a continuum of care for members of our community living with advanced illness and loss, TRU’s programs include TRU Hospice, TRU PACE (Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly), TRU Palliative Care, Landmark Memory Care, and TRU Grief Services.

TRU Hospice is proudly accredited by The Joint Commission and is a five-star-level hospice in NHPCO's We Honor Veterans program created in collaboration with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). TRU is a member of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO), the National Partnership for Healthcare and Hospice Innovation (NPHI), the Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC), Nurses Improving Care for Healthsystem Elders (NICHE), and the National PACE Association (NPA).

Our Services

TRU Grief Services
& Administrative Offices
2594 Trailridge Drive East
Lafayette, CO 80026

TRU Hospice Care Center
1950 Mountain View Avenue
4th Floor South
Longmont, CO 80501

TRU Thrift Shop
5565 Arapahoe Avenue
Boulder, CO 80303

TRU PACE Program
2593 Park Lane
Lafayette, CO 80026

TRU Memory Care
1744 S Public Road
Lafayette, CO 80026

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