Rainbow Hospice
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Rainbow Hospice and Palliative Care, founded in 1981, is a non-profit organization and the largest hospice and palliative care provider in Cook County, Illinois.[1] With offices in Park Ridge, Mt. Prospect, and Chicago, Illinois, it serves Cook, Lake, McHenry, Kane, DuPage and Will counties.[2]
Rainbow Hospice is accredited by the Community Health Accreditation Program or CHAP as of 2013. As an accrediting body, CHAP has regulatory authorization to survey agencies providing home health and hospice services, to determine whether they meet the Medicare Conditions of Participation (COPs).[3]
Rainbow Hospice is the only Chicago Area Hospice to have a full-time pharmacist on staff to provide consultations to patient care staff. The hospice also provides access to music therapy, pet therapy, and massage therapy.
For individual hospice patients, patient care teams consist of Certified Nursing Assistants (C.N.A.'S), social workers, a hospice chaplain, as well as supervision and consultation from patient care managers, doctors, the Medical Director, and pharmacist.
Contents
History
Early History
Rainbow Hospice was created after founder Betty Brosius dealt with her husband's terminal illness and found the area hospital to be lacking in the palliative care her husband was requesting. After his death in 1979, Brosius, along with her minister, a social worker and an additional friend, to made a plan to provide palliative care to the terminally ill. In 1981, paperwork was filed for a nonprofit license and with initial financial support and office space provided by the First United Methodist Church of Des Plaines, Rainbow Hospice was created.
Park Ridge
After serving a dozen families following its formation in 1981, Rainbow Hospice outgrew its space in Des Plaines. Beginning in 1990, Rainbow Hospice moved to several new locations before acquiring its former headquarter location at 444 North Northwest Highway in Park Ridge, Illinois. In May 2011, Rainbow Hospice moved their headquarters to 1550 Bishop Court, Mount Prospect.
Betty Brosius
Founder, Betty Brosius, continued working with Rainbow Hospice until her retirement in early 2004. In 2003, Betty was diagnosed with terminal non-alcoholic cirrhosis and became a patient of Rainbow Hospice who cared for her until her death in March 2004.[4]
Inpatient Unit
In 2006, Rainbow Hospice began the creation of an Inpatient Unit, a specialized facility used by hospices to serve critical care patients in an environment where they have 24-hour access to direct care. After a year of planning and renovation, the Rainbow Hospice Ark, a 15 room Inpatient Unit, opened on November 11, 2007.
The Rainbow Hospice Ark is located in a self-contained wing at St. Matthews Center for Health in Park Ridge, IL, a long-term facility that was built in 1959. In 2008, the Ark was awarded a design merit citation by Healthcare Design Magazine.[5]
Bereavement Services
The bereavement program began as a whole in 1992, however, portions of the program - Widowed Support, which is more than 30 years old, and the Good Mourning Children's Program, which is more than 20 years old - were external groups that were added on as the program grew.
Rainbow Hospice's Bereavement Program provides services to cover all areas of loss to hospice families and the community at large.[6]
Good Mourning Program
The Good Mourning Program for Children, Teens and Families is a 20-year-old bereavement support group. The program has concurrent support for the children and their parents or guardians within the same program. Children are taken through a grieving process while adults are both helped in their grieving process and to assist their child.
Other specialized services from Good Mourning include a summer family camps in the Chicago area, short-term support groups, monthly support programs and holiday gatherings.
Grief in School Program
The Good Mourning staff also provides assistance to schools in need of bereavement services. Rainbow Hospice provides intervention teams for crisis consultation and debriefing for indictments in schools. In conjunction with the LIFE Institute for Learning, bereavement staff also provides grief management training to schools, colleges and professionals.
LIFE Institute
The Rainbow LIFE Institute for Learning is the educational arm of Rainbow Hospice. LIFE stands for: Leading Innovators For end of life Education. The LIFE Institute provides programs and continuing education unit (CEU) opportunities for health care, social work and educational professionals in palliative care and bereavement.
See also
Notes
External links
- Rainbow Hospice Homepage
- Hospice Foundation of America
- Hospice Association of America
- National Hospice & Palliative Care Organization
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