About Hospice Ministries
Hospice Ministries, Inc. is a community-based hospice that is committed to providing warm, compassionate, and expert care focused on the patient’s priorities, needs and values. Services are designed to ease pain, alleviate symptoms and provide support to the patients and their caregivers. We are a patient and family focused organization dedicated to providing quality end-of-life care. Our care is built on the principles of comfort, dignity, and choice.
As one of the oldest and largest hospices in Mississippi, we exist to help patients and their families with life-limiting illnesses. Our goal is to help patients live life as fully as possible, as well as support those who love and care for them.
Community-based Hospice Care
Care from Hospice Ministries is accessible at any time-24 hours a day, 7 days a week; aggressive in preventing and managing pain and symptoms; committed to the patient’s physical, emotional and spiritual comfort; and focused on helping patients live life as fully as possible.
Our Story
Every family at some point will be faced with a decision about end-of-life care for a loved one. Although it may sound like an unpleasant thought, it shouldn’t be viewed that way. Death is as natural as birth, and every day and every moment are a gift from our Creator. The belief that every moment counts is fundamental to the core values of Hospice Ministries, who this year is celebrating thirty years of serving patients and families in Mississippi.
The mission statement of Hospice Ministries is simple: “We bridge the gap between life and death by being present, offering hope, and expanding knowledge through compassionate service to the community. We provide care for patients with life-limiting illnesses, regardless of their ability to pay.” Hospice Ministries is a non-for-profit organization and is unique as it operates under the belief that an individual’s last days are as important and as special as every other day in this person’s life.
The Hospice Ministries story began in 1988 when a local oncologist, Dr. Gerry Ann Houston, became burdened that patients with chronic illnesses were not always getting the special end-of -life care that they needed. She felt that people in their last days, weeks, or months should be able to be in a comfortable place, such as their own home, if they desired, surrounded by their family and the things they treasured most here on Earth. She, along with businessman, Dan Broughton, started Hospice of Central Mississippi. It was the first home hospice of its kind in Central Mississippi.
A few years later in 1992, Hospice of Central Mississippi was approached by Dot Cannon of the Willing Heart Circle in Brookhaven about starting a hospice in that community. Hospice was still a new concept, but it was a good concept that was being quickly adopted by families who wanted to have the best possible experience with loved ones who were dying. The Brookhaven community embraced this concept, and a branch of Hospice of Central Mississippi was started. Many patients and families in this area continue to benefit from Dot Cannon’s vision.
In 1997 Hospice of Central Mississippi joined with Whispering Pines Hospice, an inpatient hospice in South Jackson. Whispering Pines Hospice accepted its first patients in 1991 after a committee formed by the bishops of the Catholic, Episcopal, and United Methodist Churches in Mississippi had begun working two years earlier to establish a residential facility for patients who were terminally ill. The Ecumenical Health Care Organization (EHCO), the board of the three-church group, was committed to forming an inpatient hospice so that patients with no family or no home would have a place of comfort in which to spend their final days. The inpatient hospice was located in South Jackson on Raymond Road in a building that originally housed Whispering Pines Nursing Home. When it was initially opened, Whispering Pines Hospice had 10 beds, but by 1995 the census had increased to 36. Patients were admitted to Whispering Pines if a physician certified that their life expectancy was less than a year. Many HIV/AIDS patients were cared for by the loving staff at Whispering Pines, as other facilities would not accept them. Jean Jones, a member of the EHCO, was the director of Whispering Pines, and Dr. William Causey was appointed Medical Director. Dr Causey led the 30 member staff and worked diligently to keep the patients pain and symptom free. His tenure extended beyond the time of the merger with Hospice of Central Mississippi to form Hospice Ministries, Inc.
The philosophy of Hospice Ministries is to go above and beyond the usual care provided for patients in their last days. Some of the employees have been with the organization since the early days, and all proclaim that hospice care is a calling; it’s not just a job. It’s not unusual to find a nurse singing to a patient, a staff member making a special batch of cookies for a family, or a social worker going out of her way to arrange a date night for a couple in hospice or plan a prom night for a young patient. The Hospice Ministries’ team will repeatedly tell everyone that hospice is not about dying – it’s about living every single day to make every moment count.
Hospice is more than a place or a program.
Hospice is a program of care which meets the physical, spiritual, emotional, and social needs of individuals in the final stages of life’s journey. Hospice services may be provided to patients wherever they call home, such as private homes, assisted living facilities, nursing homes, our inpatient facility and even hospitals. Hospice services involve a special team approach of caring that stresses relief from pain and the easing of symptoms. It allows terminally ill patients to choose how they spend their final months and live as comfortable as possible. Hospice does not seek to postpone or hasten death. Instead, hospice seeks to improve the quality of life, committed to the principle that every person deserves to live the last moments of his or her life in comfort, dignity and peace.
Why is Hospice Ministries Different?
Reputation
Providing both in-home and inpatient comfort care, thousands of families hold testimonies of the kindness and support shown to patients and their caregivers.
Our Team
Many of the Hospice Ministries team have served for more than 20 years. The compassion that families feel from the staff is a driving force behind the positive reputation that Hospice Ministries holds.
Not for Profit Status
Hospice Ministries is a not for profit entity that serves our patients despite their financial circumstances. Our primary goal is to provide in-of-life care to all patients regardless of their ability to pay.
Ministry-driven
Hospice Ministries was created as a ministry for patients with life-limiting illnesses and is driven by the principle that God may not always choose to heal physically, but He always chooses to heal spiritually. Through our interaction with each patient, our mission is to show the love of Christ, while providing hope to each person with whom we interact.
The McClean Fletcher Center
The McClean Fletcher Center serves as one of the unique components of Hospice Ministries. This free service is the only center of its kind in Mississippi, providing grief support for children ages 4 to 18 who are anticipating or have suffered the loss of a loved one, friend, or caregiver.
Family Follow-Up
For 13 months following the death of a patient, Hospice Ministries prioritizes the follow up with each family. We believe this continuation of service reiterates our ministry mindset, as we focus to provide love and hope to everyone we serve.