All Care Hospice helps families enjoy Thanksgiving

Marblehead Reporter / December 4, 2009

Marblehead — All Care Hospice team members wanted to give back this Thanksgiving holiday by helping out some of the families they are caring for. All Care Hospice’s goal is most simply to enhance the quality of a person's life, while optimizing the time spent with family and friends. November was also National Caregiver’s month, and to honor this observance All Care Hospice wanted to support the caregivers that they serve. With that in mind, five families received full-course Thanksgiving dinners from All Care Hospice.

Hospice care is a program of palliative and supportive care services providing physical, psychological, social and spiritual care for dying persons, their families and other loved ones. At the end of his talk, Hays answered numerous questions from the audience.

While everyone enjoys and looks forward to the holidays, they can still be stressful, noted the team members. Caring for a loved one at the end of his or her life can certainly add to that stress and take an emotional toll. The team’s objective was to make this one day just a bit easier.

“We wanted families to be able to enjoy one another and not have to worry about cooking Thanksgiving dinner,” said Rachel Russo, Clinical Director of All Care Hospice. “By providing these meals, we were hoping to take care of one of the many tasks these families face during the holidays.”

Added Dr. Lewis Hays of Marblehead, All Care Hospice medical director, “Hospice is about living life to the fullest. We want families to remember this holiday and the good times they had with one another.”

This Thanksgiving, by giving of themselves, the All Care Hospice team did just that, by taking care of a difficult part of the holiday so that the families could spend precious time enjoying each other and creating the kind of memories that will last forever.

For more information about All Care Hospice services and programs, call 800-287-2454 or visit www.allcare.org.