By Eric Nusbaum, Assistant Editor, JTNews
In April 2009, a law passed in Olympia paved the way for the Caroline Kline Galland Center and Affiliates to provide Washington State’s first Jewish hospice service. Now, after six months offering the service inside its own residences, Kline Galland has taken Jewish hospice to the broader King County community.
The program currently serves a fluctuating number of between 10 and 20 patients, only a handful of whom live outside Kline Galland residencies. But that number is expected to grow to about 40, which is the program’s legal cap on patients. An application for a certificate of need granting Kline Galland the right to serve unlimited patients is pending.
Jewish hospice care is in high demand, said Kline Galland hospice administrator David Brumer, especially when considering that most hospice care is provided for elderly patients.
“We’re talking about people who still are coming from the pogroms, the Holocaust, war-torn Euope,” Brumer said. “The level of trust becomes paramount.”
But the Jewish dimension of the service goes beyond a name and reputation to establish trust. Kline Galland’s hospice service is Jewish from its foundation.
“It’s not enough to have a rabbi or chaplain coming in at the end,” said Brumer. “It has to be that the entire edifice of our program has this [Jewish] backbone.”
Kline Galland’s hospice service is available to the community at large, but it brings the same Jewish approach to all patients, one that Brumer insists is unique.
“We serve the larger community, but the philosophical, spiritual, theological value system is Jewish,” said Brumer. “And that tradition is about valuing life.”
The current Kline Galland staff of 12 people includes doctors, nurses, therapists and more, and will grow in size as the program does. However, that may not happen immediately.
“It’s high quality, so we’re building very slowly and methodically,” said Kline Galland CEO Jeff Cohen.
And as Kline Galland’s hospice program does grow, Cohen expects significant interest from non-Jews. The program will work in cooperation with clergy from other faiths to provide as much comfort as possible to patients and their families. Families are a crucial part of the equation, Cohen said.
“When we provide services, we not only provide services to the patient, but spiritual counseling, general counseling, and a support system for the family,” said Cohen.
A growing cadre of carefully screened volunteers provides some of this support, helping with various elements of the hospice service. This can mean anything from providing respite care when a caregiver or family member is busy or needs a break, to helping around the office with clerical work, to most often simply providing companionship.
“Often in people’s final weeks, months, they want to talk,” Brumer said.
For family members who want to talk, Kline Galland has begun a drop-in grief support group; the first session will run on Wednesday evenings at 7 p.m. from Oct. 6 to Nov. 17.