I am Sandy Hamilton and am grateful and humbled to share some background information and insight as to why I readily agreed to share my family’s Hospice of the Panhandle story. My family’s story is the subject of a commercial currently airing on local TV and radio stations. I never doubted the value of Hospice…
By Maria Lorensen, Development Director Taylor Spigler-James served as a nurse at Hospice of the Panhandle’s Inpatient Facility, until she passed away on June 13. Taylor was an animal and nature lover. Staff members are collecting items for the Berkeley County Humane Society, and a Hospice of the Panhandle Nursing Scholarship has been set up…
By Margaret Cogswell, RN, CHPCA CEO I’m writing today to share with you a story of someone who just last year needed hospice care (and who many of you may know). I’d like to introduce you to Theresa Goodman, hospice volunteer extraordinaire. Theresa came to hospice volunteering through her experience with her dad when he…
By Maria Lorensen, Development Director Several months ago, our good friend Dr. Ryan McCarthy reached out to ask about Hospice of the Panhandle participating in a Facebook collaborative project he was working on called “Healthcare Is Human.” The project is designed to help healthcare workers share their personal stories, and he was interested in hearing…
This article was originally published by 100 Days in Appalachia, an independent, non-profit digital news publication incubated at the Media Innovation Center at the West Virginia University Reed College of Media. Sign up for their weekly newsletter here. It has always been Lillian Amanaka’s dream to work with patients at the end of life, she says, her accent…
The story of Sandy Hamilton and her father is a familiar one. Many of us have to face difficult decisions in deciding when the time is right to seek help from Hospice when a loved one is facing a life-limiting illness. When the doctor said Sandy and her dad should call Hospice after months of…
Emergency plans – something that most of us don’t value or see the importance of until we’re in a crisis situation. At Hospice of the Panhandle, we have seen the value of emergency plans in many different situations – specifically those for optimal symptom management and those who help to prepare our staff, patients, and…
By Ashley Horst, Fundraising & Marketing Coordinator For the last 13 years, I have been educating the community about the importance of an advance directive. I’ve spoken on the subject dozens of times with various groups—church groups, civic organizations, hospice volunteers and more. Each time I speak with a group, I invariably hear a version…
By Ashley Horst Fundraising & Marketing Coordinator Recently I was watching the Netflix series, Cobra Kai. For those who aren’t familiar with it, it is a continuation of the Karate Kid movies. Cobra Kai catches up with Johnny Lawrence and Daniel Larusso as middle-aged adults who start competing karate schools. The drama unfolds from there.…
By Katrina Stevens Volunteer Services Manager Over the past year, so much of what we have defined as “normal” has changed. We changed every way we interact with human beings—how we communicate, fellowship, work, see and touch each other. Giving back to society also was affected as many nonprofit organizations switched to a work-from-home model,…