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News from the Keweenaw Peninsula Posted December 16, 2002 Text © 2002 Bill Sewell, member, Omega House Board of Directors

Omega House to provide home for terminally ill hospice patients

 Sometimes, there is no care giver available, or the family is able to give only limited help. If the closest relative is a son or daughter living in another state, the patient has few options. Omega House is a planned six-bed hospice house that would fill in this "missing link" in the local hospice programs. Omega House will be located in Houghton and will serve Houghton, Keweenaw, Baraga and Ontonagon counties.

But Omega House is not a reality yet. A Capital Campaign Fund Raising drive is underway. The Omega Board estimates that a little over $1,000,000 will be needed to build, equip and staff the house. Currently, the campaign has raised a little over $500,000. Clearly, much more is required to bring this badly needed facility to residents of the Copper Country.

"Hospice is there to help people through this process [of dying]," said Dr. Sigurds Janners, president of the Omega House Board. "Primarily its role is to alleviate pain and suffering, to help with the loneliness, social isolation and fear of the unknown. I have seen many people go through this process, and since hospice became a reality it has been an invaluable service to many, many people."

Dr. Janners recently sent Copper Country residents a letter asking for their support of this project.

"You can support this project by making a donation in memory or in honor of a family member or friend," Janners writes. "Please help us build the first hospice house in the Upper Peninsula. Your donation will be a 'Final Gift of Home'  to the people of all ages who will come to live and die peacefully at Omega House."

According to its mission statement, Omega House will "provide a residential, homelike environment, where terminally ill Copper Country residents may live fully during their final days, free from pain and social isolation. Omega House is a place where family and friends can support the dying person through visits and short stays, and where physical, emotional and spiritual needs will be addressed by professional and volunteer care givers."

Locally, there are three hospices -- Baraga County Home Care and Hospice, Keweenaw Home Nursing and Hospice, and Portage Lake Hospice. Each of these programs brings hospice services to people in their homes and, to a lesser extent, in nursing homes.

Hospice teams include physicians, nurses, home health aides, volunteers, clergy, physical therapists and other professionals. The goal of the hospice team is to provide palliative care (which focuses on pain control) and to bring medical, physical, emotional and spiritual help and support to the dying patient and to the patient's family.

Dame Cicely Saunders, the founder of the modern hospice movement, says that the dying have three main fears -- fear of pain, fear of isolation and fear of loss of control. Hospice programs address all three of these fears. Recent developments in pain control medications have gone a long way in assuring that no one has to endure physical pain in the dying process. Hospice teams are especially careful about this aspect of patient care. Allowing people to die at home, among their loved ones, helps with the other two fears. Frequent visits from nurses, home health aides and volunteers lessen isolation and give the dying patient more opportunity to maintain some control over his or her treatment.

Omega House will promote the rights and values of dying persons in many ways. The patients will be treated with respect in life and death, will be able to express their spiritual and philosophical beliefs in a supportive environment and will be able to experience the end of life in an atmosphere of compassion. The patients will also be able to participate in decisions regarding their care and treatment plans, have pain and distressing symptoms minimized and maintain their sense of community by having family and friends involved in their life and care.

Each of us has a loved one who may well need a place like Omega House. No donation is too small, and all donations stay in the Copper Country. Send donations to Omega House, 920 Water St., Hancock, MI 49930. Donors may make payments on a pledge up to three years. For donations of $250 or more the donor may have a name of his or her choice engraved on a plaque for a donor wall. For more information contact Lois Berg, campaign director, at 906-482-4438 (GIFT), email omegahouse@chartermi.net or write to the above address.

Editor's Note: Guest author Bill Sewell is a member of the Omega House Board of Directors and a Houghton resident who is active in community service organizations.

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