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places<br />
<strong>blue</strong> <strong>water</strong> hospice home, marysville<br />
a music therapist sings for helen pilivosian,<br />
a patient at the <strong>blue</strong> <strong>water</strong> hospice home.<br />
providing comfort<br />
by Patti Samar<br />
Most of us enter this world not knowing when we are going to exit the<br />
world. Some, however, due to illness, know when the end is near.<br />
Many who reach the end stages of life, when nothing more can be done to<br />
help them live longer, choose hospice services to help them live comfortably<br />
at this stage. Hospice services can be administered in a person’s home, or at a<br />
licensed hospice home.<br />
The Blue Water area has just one licensed hospice home. The Blue Water<br />
Hospice Home is located in Marysville and is owned and operated by Visiting<br />
Nurse Association and Blue Water Hospice, a non-profit home health care<br />
and hospice organization that provides high quality, cost-effective health care<br />
to patients and families coping with acute, chronic and terminal health care<br />
problems in Sanilac, St. Clair and northern Macomb counties.<br />
The Blue Water Hospice Home allows patients to receive hospice care<br />
in a home-like setting in one of 12 private patient rooms that offer sleeping<br />
accommodations for family members, as well.<br />
“We offer care and support to the end of life,” said Jody Lincoln, director of<br />
the Blue Water Hospice Home. “We want families who come here to realize<br />
this is their home when they are here.”<br />
Blue Water Hospice home offers patients and their families a peaceful,<br />
serene setting. All patient rooms are brightened by large windows that allow<br />
for copious amounts of natural light. All have a view of 2.5 acre pond,<br />
colorful wildflowers and gardens, and a variety of other wildlife such as ducks<br />
and geese.<br />
The Blue Water Hospice Home was opened by VNA/BWH in 2010. It<br />
was built through the generosity of numerous community members who<br />
raised money to see the facility come to fruition.<br />
“The Blue Water Hospice Home is one of the area’s best kept secrets for<br />
families who are going through the difficult journey that involves the various<br />
stages at the end of life,” said David McKay, president and CEO of VNA/<br />
BWH. “While many patients choose to receive hospice services in their<br />
homes, that is not always an option. Blue Water Hospice Home provides<br />
8 summer 2015 BlueWaterLiving.net<br />
another option in a home-like setting.”<br />
Lincoln noted that for many, the care required of a hospice patient<br />
becomes too great for the family and can be particularly difficult for the<br />
primary caregiver, which oftentimes is an elderly spouse.<br />
“There comes a point where they just can’t do it anymore,” she said. “To<br />
keep a patient at home, you have to have a very large support system. You<br />
need to have somebody to help you with every single task. That is why we<br />
are here. We tell the families, ‘Let us do that for you.’ At the end of the day,<br />
a spouse can then go home and get some sleep. One lady told me this week:<br />
‘I went home and took a bath.’ She hadn’t been able to do that for months<br />
prior to bringing her loved one here, where she knew he would receive the<br />
care he needed while she also cared for herself.”<br />
To learn more about services available at the Blue Water Hospice Home,<br />
contact VNA/BWH at (810) 984-4131 or visit the website www.vnabwh.<br />
com.