care center Archives

Volunteer Sue Samuels and Ginger the Golden Doodle

November 21, 2019 by Elizabeth Neufeld

Volunteer, Sue Samuels, has been volunteering with TRU Community Care for around ten years. She has volunteered with various programs such as Comfort Touch, 11th-hour, and Pet Therapy visits, which support individuals in their final moments struggling with illness.

Sue’s golden doodle, Ginger, visits the Care Center every Monday. Ginger is a specially trained therapy dog and one of many that visit the Care Center in rotation. A TRU Care Center nurse had asked Sue and Ginger to visit a patient who was showing signs of actively passing and had been unconscious for a few days. Sadly, the woman’s sister had arrived after the patient was no longer conscious, but was present for Ginger’s arrival and pet therapy visit.

Ginger was brought around the patient’s bed and near her side by Sue. She placed the patient’s hand on Ginger’s head for comfort and then heard an audible gasp by the patient. The patient’s eyes opened and she asked for water and a cup of coffee! From this point, the patient asked to go to the bathroom and was assisted to walk. She was conscious for two more days while she and her sister visited until her last breath.

One of Sue’s favorite parts of volunteering with TRU Community Care is being able to support individuals in their final hours. The additional support to the patients and their families is what sets TRU Community Care apart from other hospice care centers. This is one of those stories that we strive for and hope for, to bring people together in life’s most vulnerable moments, and we are thankful for all of our volunteers who support this vision.

To learn more about our programs and volunteering, please visit trucare.org/volunteer for more information.

PACE Home Care

November 7, 2019 by Elizabeth Neufeld

TRU PACE (Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly) coordinates and provides care for older individuals so they can continue living safely in their community and receive care directly in their home through our PACE Home Care program. Many of these individuals receive their care at the TRU PACE Day Center, which includes social space and programming, as well as a medical clinic and a rehab gym. At least 60% of PACE participants also get a CNA and home visit.

TRU PACE provides initial assessments for all participants in order to determine which services are needed and where they will best be served. An individualized plan of care is developed, and participants who will be better served at home will receive care where they live, within their community. Home care can include light housekeeping, grocery shopping, meal preparation and delivery, personal care, and medication reminders. It can also include physical therapy, occupational therapy, medical care, and more! The PACE patient community is very diverse, made of individuals from different backgrounds and with a variety of health issues.

Recently, a team from PACE Home Care visited a gentleman to assess his needs and health status. The man clearly takes pride in his appearance with freshly ironed clothing and his home immaculate and clean, but unfortunately had very poor living conditions. Doing the best with what the man had, he still could not afford the copays required from his benefits. When asked why he was continuing on this way the man replied, “because there is no one to help”.

Enter PACE. From the moment that PACE Home Care visited, the man has been a part of the PACE program. Their home visit assessed the man’s living situation and was able to determine the best support for his future health and overall quality of life. Everyone who comes into the program gets assistance, regardless of their ability to pay.

The overall goal of PACE Home Care is to keep individuals safe at home for as long as possible. PACE Home Care works to ensure that each person gets the right care at the right time. Things we often take for granted, such as the ability to bathe, grocery shop, and go out in public, are returned to PACE Home Care participants through simple actions of support such as installed shower chairs, meals on wheels, medication reminders, and dental care.

Kyle Engstrom, the Home Care Coordinator for PACE, shared this story saying,

“Our home care nurses get to see participants in their homes, in their own environments where they spend their lives outside of the Pace Day Center. Our nurses make sure they’re getting the assistance they need to be at home safely. The home care aides are very much the unsung heroes. They see our home care participants weekly, sometimes daily, and help prevent accidents in the home and improve the participants’ overall health and outlook on life. I think it’s cool. These are things we take for granted and are the fundamentals of health.”

TRU PACE serves seniors from all walks of life. Our program can enroll individuals who meet the following eligibility requirements:

At least 55 years old
Living in our PACE service area
Certified by the State of Colorado as needing nursing-home-level care, and
Able to live safely in the community with PACE services at the time of enrollment.

Learn more about the PACE program by visiting the National PACE Organization.

TRU PACE participants must receive all needed healthcare, including primary care and specialty physician services (other than emergency services) from TRU PACE contracted providers. TRU PACE participants may be fully and personally liable for costs of any unauthorized out-of-network services. TRU PACE participants may disenroll at the end of any month.
TRU Community Care is a Colorado-licensed, Medicare and Medicaid-certified, nonprofit health care organization serving the greater Boulder, Broomfield, Adams, Jefferson, and Weld Counties. We rely on the support of our donors, sponsors, and community to provide the services necessary. To learn more about how you can support TRU Community Care, please visit www.trucare.org/donate

One Year of Volunteering with TRU

March 26, 2019 by TRU Community Care

My name is Stephanie and I have been a volunteer at TRU Community Care for a year. Working with TRU Community Care has helped me put my own life in perspective. It has been a learning experience about the challenges and experiences and, yes, joys people go through at the end of life and it has taught me to treasure each moment with my family and friends. In my year, I have worked with people from age 25 to age 100. Some of them lived with disease for years and one of them had been diagnosed the month before going to the care center. I have realized that none of us has a contract on our lives, and I have learned to take advantage of the times I have with the people I care about.

There are a wide range of options for volunteer experiences with TRU. This last year, I worked as a companion, provided respite care, provided transportation, and provided assistance with patients in the care center. The staff at TRU tries to match the volunteer experience that fits your talents and provides the most personal satisfaction for you. I have found that no matter what I was doing, It was a deeply touching and meaningful experience.

When I retired, I had to recreate myself and decide what I wanted to do now. I ended up with a goal of finding a head job, a heart job, and a job that would make use of my creative talents. TRU provides the heart job that I need. It is not unusual for people to ask, “How can you do that type of work?” and, “Isn’t it uncomfortable for you?” Volunteering with TRU can sometimes be an emotional experience, but as a volunteer, I am doing whatever I can to make sure that the patient has the opportunity to live every moment until they die. One patient was talking with me about her fear of dying, and it led to a conversation about her family that had us both belly laughing. She looked at me and said, “Thank you for making me laugh.” That was a moment unlike any other and the reason why I volunteer.

My family has used hospice twice in the past several years. Both times I watched the compassionate hospice team care for my loved ones. I will never forget how helpful, kind, and compassionate they were for me and my family who found ourselves in unusual, confusing, stressful, and emotional circumstances. We learned that hospice isn’t something to fear. It would have been much more difficult for us if hospice had not been there to provide day and night advice and assistance. I put it in the back of my head that I would try to give back if the opportunity came up for me.

The first assignment that I took after I completed hospice volunteer training was with an 89-year-old woman. She wanted to memorize the Gettysburg Address before she died. I was so impressed that a woman who was at the end of life still had a bucket list that I jumped at the chance to work with her. We spent many hours over a few months time going over and over the Gettysburg Address. When she got tired, she would recite poetry to me that she had memorized over the years – The Village Smithy and The Children’s Hour. I heard about her life with her husband – they had been together since kindergarten. I met her family. It was an honor to spend time with her, and I had a real sense of satisfaction in knowing that, in a small way, I helped her achieve a goal she set for herself. I am amused with the idea that somehow, somewhere she has run into Abraham Lincoln and they had a good old time discussing the Gettysburg Address. I’m sure she told him how difficult the last two sentences are.

There have been many moments of hospice volunteering that I will treasure. The 100-year-old woman who played the piano for me as we sang Jack and Jill Went Up the Hill. Her daughter told me she had not played the piano in months before that point. There was a gentleman who I took to the grocery store to buy cigarettes and a lottery ticket so he could win and give his son a lot of money. He had not lost his interest in what was going on in the world and we had rousing political discussions. There was the man who wanted me to read Hank the Cowdog to him. And the woman who couldn’t speak, but she FaceTimed with her grandchildren regularly.

Volunteering with TRU has also helped me understand how important it is to make my family aware of my end of life wishes. Death is, perhaps, the hardest thing to talk about. But having that conversation before the emotional distress of a crisis kicks in will help my loved ones know the setting that I prefer, with the amount of end-of-life intervention that I want to have. The medical staff who takes care of me will be able to work with my family to provide the care I want, and my loved ones will have better grief outcomes.

My first year at TRU Community Care has been a special one. Every person I have worked with has had different needs, but I found that no matter what kind of person they are or what kind of life they have led, when it comes to the end, something as simple as listening, smiling, offering a caring touch, or just being there can provide real comfort. Volunteering with hospice is a genuinely gratifying experience.

If you are interested in volunteering with TRU, please visit the volunteer section of our website to learn more.

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