>>Hospice is about living.

How can we make this moment

as good as possible before
anything else changes?

We just are here for today to
make life worth living now.

>>I don't know what people
did without hospice.

And I have great
respect for Werner.

He actually died, his hospital
was right there on this ward.

I have great respect for
he insisted that he wanted

to die the way he thought
he should die at home.

And not taking drugs and
just be taken care of

until he expired.

>>There is a misconception
that the focus of hospice care

is on dying but really it
is about quality of life.

Join us today as we visit
Hospice of the Piedmont

to find out what this
important organization is doing

to help people with
terminal illness

live out their lives in comfort
with respect and dignity.

Come on.

Tell us, what is the mission
of Hospice of the Piedmont?

>>For 35 years now our vision

or our mission has
remained the same.

That no one would have
to die alone or in pain.

And that's no one.

Regardless of age, race,
what country you're from,

what your citizenship is.
>>Right.

>>So that's our passion.

>>It absolutely is.

It's definitely not about death.

It's about a person
who's been diagnosed

with a terminal illness
who has the right

to make decisions as
to how to live out

the rest of that time.

Usually prognosis of
six months or less

is what they're facing.

>>Right.

>>One lady told me,
you know she said,

"I haven't talked to my
daughter in 17 years."

So we made the phone calls.

In other words it's
really about living.

It's not about dying.

It's about living your
final days and weeks

and months to the fullest.

And when you do that you tend
to celebrate life in general.

>>Who does hospice work with?

Does it matter
where you come from?

Does it matter your
financial situation?

How does that work?

>>None of that matters.

There's no discriminatory
factor in hospice whatsoever.

We take ages 18 to
infinity at this point.

And it's just people who are
looking to have quality of life

who are not seeking
treatment any longer

or that treatment's
not available.

>>And who pays for hospice?

>>Hospice was
established back in 1983

through a Medicare benefit
but that doesn't mean

that you have to have
Medicare to have hospice.

Commercial insurances
will pay for hospice.

But again, financial
status is not an issue.

If you don't have money, if
you don't have insurance,

you're not turned
away from Hospice.

>>Talk about the
different places

that the patients are seen.

>>They are seen anywhere
that they call home.

It could be in their private
residence, their private home,

in assisted living,
a nursing facility.

I've even cared for patients
who lived in a hotel

and in a correctional facility.

>>And today we're here
at the Hospice House

so talk about the Hospice House.

>>Well, the Hospice House
has been here for 11 years.

It's a very, very special place.

It's as close as
you can get to home

and yet not be in
your own house.

It is very personal.

We have home cooked meals.

But it's a place where
you can have this,

where your memories and
your family can be family

instead of a caregiver.

It's just a very,
very special place.

>>I just thought of the
story that you told me

about the Hospice House,
and you were talking about

the great beds that
are in the rooms now

and where they came from.

Will you tell me that
story real quick?

About the gentleman?

>>Sure.

Well, we have the
best beds around

because of a generous person.

So this patient was
at our Hospice House

and he was a
professional organist.

And when our volunteer was
meeting with him he said,

"If only I could play
the organ one more time."

So we made arrangements with
the church across the street,

First Presbyterian
gets a shout out,

and he played for
about 45 minutes.

His two kids and
wife were there.

They were weeping.

I was weeping.

Everybody was weeping.
>>Oh.

>>And then he said.
"It's finished."

He's done.

He passed away
about a week later.

And he told his wife
before he passed away,

you know, this house was perfect

except the beds
were getting older.

And she said, "I wanna
buy you guys all new beds

"and you pick the ones you want.

"Get the best ones
you can find."

And that's how we got the
best beds in Charlottesville.

(all laughing)

>>I love that story,
I love that story.

Okay, you also have
an Education Center.

Let's hear about that.

>>A couple cool things
about that program.

We have, we do get
people donating money

to the education institute,
but the coolest thing I think

is we're getting young
doctors and nurses

who rotate through, chaplains
too, social workers even,

they rotate through our hospice

and they learn how do you
take care of the dying.

A critical skill in
medicine and nursing.

>>The work that I do with
hospice was a calling.

I was drawn to hospice
as another way.

When you're in the hospital
working as a nurse,

you see so much
pain and suffering

and this is a
wonderful alternative

because you can be in your home,

have your family
members around you

and not be surrounded by
all the bells and whistles

and everything in
a hospital setting.

>>A lot of the work that
I do as a social worker

is grief counseling.

So we're actually grieving
from the beginning,

straight through until something
happens and afterwards.

And a big thing
that's rewarding to me

is getting to work with families

and walking that
journey with them.

Grief is a very private emotion

but there's also this
process of mourning

and making that public.

And that's what
our hospice does.

We have support groups,
we have memorials,

camps for children and families.

And it's a way to
let it be known,

this was an important life.

We're gonna remember it.

And with the caregiver
we're looking at burnout

and preventing that tiredness
and that overwhelmed feeling

because they're going on all
cylinders 24 hours a day.

>>My role as chaplain
is to help them identify

what their spirituality is

and how does their
spirituality help them

through the challenges of
dealing with a terminal illness.

>>You have a lot
of great programs.

Let's talk about the
Children's Center.

That's new in the
last couple years.

>>So it's the
center for children.

It has two parts to it.

One is called Journeys.

The Journeys is the Children's
Bereavement Program.

And it is so cool.

I mean we have camps that
go on during the year

where children come
who have lost a brother

or a sister or a mom and dad.

>>Right.

>>By the end of the day,
playing games, hiking,

climbing on ropes you
know they've realized,

okay, you know this is sad
but I'm not the only one.

>>Yeah, that's huge.

>>You never wanna
to be the only one.

>>Oh, that's huge.

>>It allows a child
to express themselves

the way they need to
express themselves

with dealing with grief.

And that's what makes
it so wonderful.

>>And then the other
part of the children's--

>>Is Piedmont Kids.

>>Right.

>>And we have art therapists.

But mainly Piedmont Kids is
about a supportive care program

for children now who are dying.

For children who have
less than six months.

We work with UVA and their
Palliative Care Program on this.

And it's a new program
just starting up.

And so that's great
for our community

that we can have
that full continuum.

>>You also have a Grief and
Loss program at the Center

for people dealing
with grief and loss.

>>This is a very
special place also

because there, whether
you're on hospice or not

if you've had loss of any type,

you know we're there to support.

If you're a young man
we have breakfast.

We have meetings for widows.

We have meetings
for older ladies.

In fact we even started one
if you've lost your pet.

>>Oh.

>>Yeah, so that
center can really,

because you know there's so,

in fact there was a study

in the Journal of
the American Medical

which found that if a
patient came on Hospice

the chance of their spouse
dying in the next year

was remarkedly reduced
because of the care

before the death and after.

It makes a big difference.

>>I came to the
university in 1963

and Werner was the architect
and I was the librarian

and we both were Germans

and we both enjoyed
our German culture

and had the experiences
of World War II behind us

and loved music and
art and traveling

and so we really were a pretty
ideal couple I would say.

Werner got diagnosed
with prostate cancer

in April of 2014.

And the wonderful things is
that these hospice nurses

and the staff became
so fond of Werner

and this give-and-take
was extremely important

for his recovery and for
basically making the end

of life phase easier
for him and for me.

And I'm eternally
grateful for that.

>>With Mr. Sensbach, I really
got to know him as a person.

What he liked to do,
what his interests were,

what his life was about.

Where he'd come from,
his political beliefs,

his spiritual beliefs.

We really talked
about so many things

in the course of my visits

that you make a personal
connection with people.

You get really attached.

>>So we were seeing
a patient who was 21

who had colon cancer.

And when I talked to the dad,

he was just weeping
about this situation.

And he said to me, "Well there's
one more thing Dr. Avery,

"my son won't talk to me."

Well I went in to see the
patient, this young man

and his two brothers were
in the room with him.

And I did my medical
stuff, examined him,

and finally I said,
"You know your dad says

"you're not talking to him."

And Terri, he looked me right
in the eyes and he said,

"I hate that SOB."

>>Okay.

>>Ah!

He felt his dad
had been abusive.

My staff wasn't convinced
but the dad was sort

of a tough guy in
charge, maybe fearful.

Clearly loved the son.

But who we worked on
was the tough guy.

All of them, doctors, nurses,
social workers, chaplains.

And there came a point
when he came to his son

and said, "Son,
please forgive me."

And the patient, the
son ran across the room,

jumped on his dad's neck and
said, "Dad, please forgive me."

That's what hospice is about.

>>Well, and you also, a lot

of people get
involved with hospice.

You have, you have a 5K race
where people get involved

and that's a big
fundraiser for hospice.

You have a butterfly release.

And volunteers, you rely
quite a bit on volunteers.

So, how do people get
involved if they want

to be a part of hospice?

>>They just need to pick
up the phone and call us.

We have a huge thriving
volunteer department.

We love our volunteers

and we do depend on our
volunteers quite a bit.

>>Yeah, almost 20 percent of
our care is done by volunteers.

And our community
has been so generous.

If you took away our volunteers

and you took away our donors,

we would like be gone in a year.

>>Yeah.

>>So we are, we totally,

our community has been so
gracious and generous to us.

So I have to pinch myself every
day and say this is amazing.

>>I think the most
rewarding thing

is letting people
know that they have

realized whatever dream
they had for end of life.

That they wanted to
have an art exhibit

or wanted to publish a
book or finish a painting

or take a trip to the
beach or Las Vegas

that those things are
possible even with Hospice

and we make that happen.

>>Gilda Radner talked
about delicious ambiguity.

That all poems don't rhyme,

all stories don't have a
beginning, a middle and an end.

That having a terminal diagnosis

doesn't make your life
any less meaningful

than it was the day before
you got that diagnosis.

(upbeat music)