For Ardent Hospice & Palliative Care, our partnership with the No One Should Die Alone Foundation (NOSDAF) is incredibly beneficial—even essential—in allowing us to provide the highest possible care to patients. Through NOSDAF, we’re able to give our patients and their families the assurance that they’ll be taken care of completely—medically, physically, spiritually, and emotionally.
NOSDAF allows us to fund different areas of need in a patient’s life and eliminate some of their day-to-day concerns. Our main goals are to ensure our patients are comfortable in their home and living the highest quality of life possible. If a patient is worried about whether they’ll have a hospital bed to help them sleep, or if they’ll be able to see their family before they pass, they’re not living a full life because they’re living in fear and anxiety. NOSDAF helps us cover those needs and grant those last wishes to bring our patients total care.
What is Total Care?
From a hospice perspective, total care, or the continuum of care, is giving a patient a full support team to provide holistic care in the home. At Ardent, this team includes a social worker, spiritual counselor, LVN, RN, and doctor.
This total care encompasses palliative and home health services as well. So, if a patient is on hospice, but their circumstances improve, they can transition into our palliative program. This gives patients reassurance that they can continue to have us involved in their care at any stage.
Our total care support also includes helping patients find and apply for additional benefits to supplement and enhance their services. We can arrange for IHSS caregiving services, find placement in assisted living facilities, or even help with home utility discounts and payments.
Importance of NOSDAF Funding to Total Care
With our partnership with NOSDAF, we’re able to take our total care services to the next level. It allows us to finance aspects of care we could not fund otherwise, solely through our hospice program.
The foundation funds three specific areas that each contribute to a better quality of life for patients.
- Necessities for Life—funds basic human needs
- Life Enhancements—enriches a patient’s life with emotional support
- Wish Fulfillment—brings patients happiness by making their final wishes come true
In some unfortunate circumstances, there are patients who are unable to receive hospice services because they do not have qualifying insurance. NOSDAF allows us to provide care for those patients who normally wouldn’t be able to receive services elsewhere. It helps us to ensure they receive the same quality of care as someone with insurance.
The Necessities for Life segment gives us the opportunity to present patients with fundamental essentials, such as food. We had one patient in our hospice services who couldn’t provide groceries for himself. With funds from NOSDAF, we were able to go out and purchase items to fill his fridge and pantry and keep him stocked for a few weeks.
The other areas—Life Enhancements and Wish Fulfillment—make patients’ lives a little easier and more comfortable. This can mean anything from finding and showing their favorite movies, to providing durable medical equipment (DME) to take care of their medical needs. Ardent has its own supply of DME, and we have our own dedicated team to install or repair equipment, so we can take care of those needs almost immediately; and with NOSDAF, we’re able to offer these services to patients who wouldn’t be able to afford it without financial help.
NOSDAF also grants us the opportunity to bring patients happiness. During Christmastime, we were able to purchase and wrap gifts for a patient’s family members, and got to see the joy on that patient’s face when his grandchildren squealed with delight as they opened them. Another time we gave a woman a stuffed animal that looked like her dog; she couldn’t bring the companion with her to her new home and missed him. Giving her this treasure brought her peace as she transitioned and adapted to her surroundings.
The personal care and support we are able to provide our patients are made possible, in large part, because of NOSDAF. If you’d like to volunteer with the foundation, visit us online. Or if you have a loved one who could benefit from Ardent’s hospice services, give us a call at (559) 408-5945 for more information.
Share +