Kara Hillhouse and Karen Cheesman shared with us about Tabitha Hospice which is the gold standard for quality, compassionate, end-of-life care. A team approach combining expert medical care, pain management, and emotional and spiritual support, hospice care allows each individual to spend his or her final months to the fullest—with dignity and choice.
Tabitha, a mission-focused nonprofit, offers Nebraska’s first and only comprehensive line of Senior Care services. Through results-driven rehabilitation, accessible home health care, innovative living communities, resourceful serious illness support and compassionate hospice services, Tabitha is your answer for Senior Care across much of Nebraska. Our main campus is located in the heart of Lincoln, Nebraska, and we offer community campuses in Lincoln's Williamsburg neighborhood and in Crete, Nebraska. We also have regional offices in Grand Island and York, serving clients from Kearney to Nebraska City, plus a collaboration with Immanuel to offer home health and hospice care in the Omaha metro.
Established in 1979, Tabitha Hospice was a pioneer in hospice care, which serves 28 counties in Nebraska, and is the longest-running hospice program in Nebraska. For decades we have gained the trust of local families and health care providers.
Despite enormous medical advances, too many Americans still die alone or in pain. Too many endure costly and ineffective treatments. Too many come to hospice too late, or not at all. 80 percent of Americans say they would prefer to live out the remainder of their lives at home, but fewer than 25 percent do. However, of those with hospice care, 75 percent are able to finish their life's journey at home.
Like all of Tabitha's Senior care services, Tabitha Hospice is motivated by Christian compassion, not economic gain. We are a not-for-profit hospice care provider. Unlike many of our for-profit competitors, we do not have to focus on generating profits for our shareholders. Instead, we focus on helping those we care for make the most of their lives.
What Is Hospice:
Hospice care allows clients to live their final months to the fullest—with dignity and choice, providing assistance when needs turn from cure to comfort. Enrolling in hospice care sooner helps families and clients manage pain and symptoms, reduce caregiver stress, plan advance directives and allows for quality time together during life’s last chapters. With hospice there is no time limit. Hospice can begin and end at anytime. Tabitha has an Interdisciplinary Team that works with the family and patient. HOSPICE CARE:
- Provides support and care for those in the last phases of a life-limiting illness
- Focuses on quality of life for individuals, caregivers and family
- Assists to honor and carry out end-of-life wishes, from a special meal or visit to bucket list activities
- Supports caregivers and family through grief
Who Is Eligible:
Anyone choosing to focus on comfort and quality of life who is faced with a life-limiting illness. It does require a physician’s authorization. It includes anyone diagnosed with a terminal illness for someone whose life expectancy is six months or less. It can be someone who is seeking palliative care for symptom and pain management. Tabitha hospice honors veterans who are eligible to receive hospice care.
Where Is Support Provided:
In the comfort and familiarity of wherever home may be, or in Lincoln, at Tabitha’s Journey House, a residential-style home dedicated to hospice care. Some of the areas where hospice is provided is at a skilled nursing facility, assisted living facility or other living communities.
How Do You Pay for Care?:
Hospice care is covered by insurance:
- Medicare
- Veterans’ Administration (VA) Benefits
- Medicaid
- Private Insurance
One item that is not covered by these mentioned above is the Board & Room which can cost as much as $300 to $400 per day. Thanks to generous donations, regardless of ability to pay for services—no one is turned away.
When Is It Time For Hospice?:
Here are the signs you should be looking for:
- Increased assistance needed with activities of daily living including walking, dressing and bathing
- Reduced desire to eat, leading to weight loss
- Multiple hospitalizations or ER visits
- Recurring infections
- Functional decline, including inability to speak or communicate clearly
- Increased pain or difficulty breathing
- Progression of disease including poor response to treatment
- Decision to focus on quality of life instead of aggressive treatments
Why Tabitha:
Tabitha is a local, faith-based nonprofit offering compassionate and exceptional quality care including for over 40 years.
Tabitha Hospice clients and families are supported through:
- 24/7 availability for consultation and urgent visits
- Coordination of medication, medical equipment and supplies
- Personal care needs and companionship provided by hospice aides and volunteers
- Personalized Veteran services
- Emotional and spiritual support from a team of social workers and chaplains
- Full continuum of care for ease of transition between services
- Bereavement services for all loved ones during and after hospice care, including supportive grief groups and reference materials
The Tabitha Hospice medical director works with your loved one's physician to develop a plan for optimum pain relief and symptom management. The medical director will intervene to assure delivery of appropriate treatment to support your loved one's care plan, within established hospice guidelines.
Early engagement with the Tabitha Hospice interdisciplinary team helps individuals enjoy the things they care about most and pursue final wishes and goals.
Although not a primary caregiver, the Tabitha Hospice team reduces the stress of caring for a terminally ill loved one by providing nursing, emotional and spiritual support, medical planning and advance-directive help, and many other resources to ease the challenges of caregiving. Care is provided wherever you call home.