Hospice program broadens service

'Transitions' volunteers offer companionship during difficult time

By LAURA UNGAR
Staff reporter
11/13/2003

Lewis Lee steadied himself at the edge of a hospital bed, his thin frame draped by a gown and an oxygen tube in his nose. On a chair nearby, Jack DeBusi, a Delaware Hospice volunteer, leaned in to chat and joke with Lee about food and future plans.

The men came together through a Delaware Hospice program that started in Sussex County, moved to Kent, then made its way to New Castle County in August. Called Transitions, it provides companionship, transportation and other help for people with serious illnesses who are still aggressively seeking a cure and are not ready to enter traditional hospice care. National experts say this population is in need of more support and comfort.

"I don't know what I'd do without that guy, and that's the truth," said Lee, a Wilmington resident in his early 90s who suffers from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and heart disease. "He provides a lot of company."

Companionship is one of many services volunteers and project coordinators provide. Kristin Pidgeon, New Castle County coordinator, said volunteers offer assistance with shopping, running errands, transportation and meals. Coordinators also refer clients to community resources such as Meals on Wheels, home care services or counseling.

"This is a way of giving a family some help," Pidgeon said.

Clients can be referred by friends, family or community groups, whereas hospice patients are referred by medical professionals.

Transitions started a year and a half ago in Sussex County. So far, 72 families across the state have been helped.

Lee, New Castle County's first Transitions client, found out about the program after he was referred to hospice. His wife is a hospice patient.

Although Lee did not qualify for hospice, Pidgeon said he was a perfect candidate for Transitions.

DeBusi, 58, of Bear, visits Lee about once a week. Sometimes he takes Lee on drives. They stop at fast-food restaurants and slow down near Delaware Park to see the racehorses, which remind Lee of the dairy farm where he grew up.

"We talk about a little bit of everything," said Lee, who was at St. Francis Hospital in Wilmington last week.

DeBusi became a hospice volunteer after his wife died suddenly from a heart attack more than three years ago. His daughter is a hospice nurse.

"At first, I wasn't sure I could do this, just because of the nature of the work," he said.

It was helping people through some of their most difficult times that he found satisfying.

"We as people are all the same," he said. "We need each other."

Maureen Lilly, administrator at The Washington Home Center for Palliative Care Studies in Washington, D.C., praised the Transitions program. But she said she would like to see more services for those facing life-threatening illnesses who are not ready to give up hope for a cure.

Lilly said the program is wonderful, "but it's not quite the same thing as allowing for treatment like you get in hospice."

Hospice care involves nursing and provides pain relief for people whose illness no longer responds to cure-oriented treatments.
Lee said he would like to enter hospice when the time comes. For now, he's sticking with Transitions.

"Any contact you have with other people," Lee said, "it helps a lot."

Reach Laura Ungar at lungar@delawareonline.com.
http://www.delawareonline.com/newsjournal/local/2003/11/13hospiceprogramb.html