HFO enthusiastically supports a variety of programs and initiatives that advance end-of-life care, services, and knowledge. Below is a partial list of initiatives we have been honored to support.
Initiatives Funded Over the Years
Community Education & Outreach
Moral Injury Conferences ─ A collaborative effort among The Baptist Home, Oxford Hospice, CoxHealth and Mercy to provide education and awareness of Moral Injury, particularly as it relates for veterans, for the healthcare community.
Retired Senior and Volunteer Program (RSVP) Reading Buddy and Pre-K Pals ─ Purchase 500 copies of “The Rabbit Listened” for distribution to at-risk children (Pre-K – 3rd grade) to aid them in managing emotions when dealing with grief and loss.
Drury University Department of Communication ─ Student-led project to create a message strategy (the origin of Bucket List+1) and resources to promote advance care planning among adults 18 and older.
Drury University Senior Seminar Project ─ Hosted Death over Dinner events with college students to educate on the importance of documenting wishes for end-of-life medical care.
Springfield-Greene County Library District and Respecting Choices ─ A collaborative effort to provide a community-wide “Death over Dinner” event featuring nationally known speaker Anne Neumann.
Springfield-Greene County Library District ─ An enrichment series on Death & Dying offering activities and presentations that invite comfortable conversations around end-of-life topics.
Texas County Medical Hospital ─ Hospice education for Texas County Medical Hospital and Hospice Staff to aid in their discussions with patients and the community about end-of-life care.
Grief and Bereavement
Mercy Health Foundation ─ Mercy Kids HeartPrints, a program that provides family members who experience the death of a child under 18 with tangible items to assist with the mourning and healing process.
Mercy Health Foundation – Hospice seminar for Mercy healthcare professionals covering criteria for hospice qualifications, strategies for starting conversations with patients regarding end-of-life care, and enhancing knowledge of palliative care.
Hospice & Palliative Care Programs
CoxHealth at Home – In-home music therapy services to help patients and families at end-of-life cope with physical pain, stress, and anxiety.
Oxford In-Home Palliative Care Program ─ Addresses the gap that exists in our community between home health and hospice, especially for end-of-life patients who desire to continue to receive curative treatment.
Missouri Hospice and Palliative Care Association (MHPCA) Prison Hospice Program – Program for use in prisons across Missouri that gives offenders the tools to understand and provide compassionate comfort care to other offenders at the end-of-life.
Integrative Models
CoxHealth Foundation – Launch Transportable Physician Orders for Patient Preferences (TPOPP), a method for transferring a person’s treatment preferences into medical orders recognized through the healthcare continuum.
Advanced Care Consortium – Collaboration among community partners to develop and implement Respecting Choices, a nationally recognized Advance Care Planning Model developed by Gunersen Health in LaCrosse, Wisconsen.
Research
The Foundation for Barnes-Jewish – Collaborative Project: Three educational institutions (Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis University, the University of Missouri – Columbia) and three non-profit organizations (BJC HealthCare, the Missouri Hospice and Palliative Care Association, and Oasis) are working together to improve the quality of hospice and palliative care for patients and care partners, enhance the training and support for healthcare providers caring for people with serious illness, and enhance support services for older adults.
Washington University – St. Louis – Project to test the feasibility of training hospice volunteers to deliver a specific psychosocial intervention to family caregivers as part of a strategy to address the shortage of hospice staff.
Training & Professional Development
Mercy, Oxford and Seasons Hospices ─ A collaborative effort among hospice providers in Springfield, Mo., to provide the End-of-Life Education for the Nurse Assistant (EDNA) training program to 50 nurse assistants.
Missouri Hospice and Palliative Care Association ─ Convert the online End-of-Life Education for the Nurse Assistant (EDNA) program from English to Spanish to assist nurse assistants in improving care and patient outcomes.
Norma A Carolla Scholarship Program ─ Provides nurses with a BSN degree the opportunity to obtain an MSN degree with special emphasis on end-of-life care as well as scholarships for students seeking Certified Nursing Assistants credentials at OTC who choose to complete hospice and palliative care coursework.
On Angels’ Wings – Provide incentives, training, and onboarding services to professional photographers that give services to families with terminally ill and medically fragile children.