Blue Water Hospice Home: Providing Comfort

42.9125° N, 82.4869° W
Marysville, Michigan
Blue Water Hospice Home

By Patti Samar

Most of us enter this world not knowing when we are going to exit the world. Some, however, due to illness, know when the end is near.

Many who reach the end stages of life, when nothing more can be done to help them live longer, choose hospice services to help them live comfortably at this stage. Hospice services can be administered in a person’s home, or at a licensed hospice home.

The Blue Water area has just one licensed hospice home. The Blue Water Hospice Home is located in Marysville and is owned and operated by Visiting Nurse Association and Blue Water Hospice, a non-profit home health care and hospice organization that provides high quality, cost-effective health care to patients and families coping with acute, chronic and terminal health care problems in Sanilac, St. Clair and northern Macomb counties.

The Blue Water Hospice Home allows patients to receive hospice care in a home-like setting in one of 12 private patient rooms that offer sleeping accommodations for family members, as well.

“We offer care and support to the end of life,” said Jody Lincoln, director of the Blue Water Hospice Home.  “We want families who come here to realize this is their home when they are here.”

Blue Water Hospice home offers patients and their families a peaceful, serene setting. All patient rooms are brightened by large windows that allow for copious amounts of natural light. All have a view of 2.5 acre  pond, colorful wildflowers and gardens, and a variety of other wildlife such as ducks and geese.

The Blue Water Hospice Home was opened by VNA/BWH in 2010. It was built through the generosity of numerous community members who raised money to see the facility come to fruition.

“The Blue Water Hospice Home is one of the area’s best kept secrets for families who are going through the difficult journey that involves the various stages at the end of life,” said David McKay, president and CEO of VNA/BWH.  “While many patients choose to receive hospice services in their homes, that is not always an option. Blue Water Hospice Home provides another option in a home-like setting.”

Lincoln noted that for many, the care required of a hospice patient becomes too great for the family and can be particularly difficult for the primary caregiver, which oftentimes is an elderly spouse.

“There comes a point where they just can’t do it anymore,” she said. “To keep a patient at home, you have to have a very large support system. You need to have somebody to help you with every single task. That is why we are here. We tell the families, ‘Let us do that for you.’ At the end of the day, a spouse can then go home and get some sleep. One lady told me this week: ‘I went home and took a bath.’ She hadn’t been able to do that for months prior to bringing her loved one here, where she knew he would receive the care he needed while she also cared for herself.”

To learn more about services available at the Blue Water Hospice Home or to make a donation, contact VNA/BWH at (810) 984-4131 or visit the website www.vnabwh.com.