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VNA Today

July 2018

Support Our Seniors

Support our seniors on North Texas Giving Day, Thursday, September 20^th! A gift of only $30 will feed a hungry, homebound senior for an entire week. A gift of $150 will provide hospice care for a patient for a day. You can deliver hope by helping us reach our goal of raising $200,000 to help seniors age with dignity and independence at home.

Your gift matters and you can multiply it even more! Thanks to a generous board member, your gift will be matched dollar-for-dollar up to $10,000.

You can get in on the fun and help us reach our goal:

Check out the VNA NTGD page and mark your calendar now to support our seniors on September 20^th! Early Bird giving begins September 10^th.
Get social – spread the word to your friends and loved ones about VNA and North Texas Giving Day. Don’t forget to tag #VNATexas and #NTxGivingDay when posting and encourage your friends to get up and give too!
Become a VNA FUNdraiser – create a FUNdraising page to share with your network to encourage them to give to VNA.
Join us at NTGD community events throughout the Metroplex (details coming soon)!

Thanks to donors like you, last year we raised $150,000 to help seniors in North Texas age with dignity. Thank you for your support of VNA. Help us serve even more seniors this year by getting up and giving on September 20^th!

Statistics

Palliative Care
Patients Treated in June

Shelf Stable Meals
Delivered in One Week

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Bridging Generations Through Volunteerism

Learn what it's like to volunteer with VNA Hospice

Stephanie and Gabriella are a mother-daughter VNA Hospice volunteer team in Collin County. They visit with seniors in a local nursing home—who often don’t have family near to visit with them. This dynamic duo visits with patients, like Ruth, every Sunday for a few hours. As you walk into Ruth’s room, you’ll find two paintings Gabriella made for Ruth hanging on the wall right where she can see them from her bed. One of a puppy and another of a rose. The three spend time playing games, watching TV, and talking about family memories and times gone by.

Ruth shares stories of her life with Stephanie and Gabriella, like her time as a phone operator and having to manage all the connections. Gabriella listens in amazement at how phones worked prior to cell phones.

Ruth’s husband passed away a few years ago and her family lives out of the area. The special time she spends with the mother daughter team brings a smile to Ruth’s face. “Stephanie and Gabriella treat me like I am one of them. They’re like my family,” explains Ruth. The special bond these three have formed is heartfelt.

“They lived their life and I treat them just as if they were my mom or grandparents,” Stephanie explains.

You too can make and impact like Stephanie and Gabriella. To learn how you can get involved as a hospice volunteer, click here.

Events Calendar

Prep Pet Food
Thursday, June 19
9-12 PM

Meals on Wheels
Volunteer Training
Thursday, July 19
1:30-3:30 PM

Pet Food Delivery
Saturday, July 21
1:30-3:30 PM

Coping with Grief
Sharing the Journey
Thursday, July 24
10-11:30 AM

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The Power of Kindness

When patients’ needs go beyond medical care, VNA is here to help. The Murchison Patient Fund was established in 2005 through the generosity of the Ginger Murchison Foundation to provide our patients and their families with supplies and financial assistance to ease the burden they and loved ones face at the end of life. Through the generosity of our donors, VNA can provide non-medical necessities such as bed linens, Ensure, basic toiletry items, and in some circumstances, assistance with funeral costs and utility payments. For patients with young children at home, we have purchased school supplies and Christmas gifts their terminally ill parent is unable to provide.

Last month we had the privilege of caring for an elderly man nearing end of life and supporting his wife through her husband’s illness. Our social worker, Cindy, arrived at the house when his hospital bed was being delivered. The wife, a former seamstress now suffering from arthritis, explained to Cindy how she was attempting to sew sheets together to fit the hospital bed to help keep her husband comfortable. Cindy went to her car and pulled out a new set of extra long sheets she had on hand to give to her. The wife was overwhelmed with this simple act of kindness.

VNA could not provide the comfort and compassion to patients and their family caregivers without the generous support of donors like you. You can make a difference by contributing to this vital fund.

Donate

How you can help

VNA is always looking for passionate volunteers.

Volunteer

Feed a senior or provide
hospice services.

Donate

Spread the word
on social media.

In 1934, amidst the Great Depression, VNA’s roots were planted by a group of nurses attending to women and children in desperate need. Faith-based community members took notice—raising funds and organizing the Visiting Nurse Association. VNA nurses traveled to the tent cities to offer hope and life-giving care wherever their patients called home. In our first year of operation, VNA nurses made 6,500 home visits. No calls were refused, no patients turned away for lack of resources or because of ethnicity or creed.

The first hospice program in Texas was created by VNA in 1978. At that time, hospice care was a relatively new concept for the public and VNA helped bring it into the mainstream. Toward that end, VNA was one of a select group of hospices that participated in a demonstration program from 1980 to 1983 to evaluate the benefits of hospice care, which led to the establishment of the Medicare Hospice Benefit.

That same pioneering spirit is alive and well today at VNA as we enter our sixth month in piloting a Medicare-sponsored home-based palliative care program. VNA Care Choices offers at-home support, care navigation and flexibility with treatment decisions to improve the quality of life for those facing serious illness. With nearly 100 referrals so far, this innovative model of care is providing patients with greater control in their treatment and care decisions through in-home clinical care and caregiver support provided by our multidisciplinary team of nurses, social workers, chaplains, nurse aids and volunteers.

With this program we are going back to our roots of providing care to the most vulnerable in the place they call home. Many seniors facing serious illness have exhausted their personal resources as well as those of their family caregivers. In the coming months, we will be seeking community investment to help us provide home-based palliative care to our homebound and seriously ill Meals on Wheels clients.

If you are interested in learning more about how this program could benefit you or a loved one or how you can invest in our efforts to target the most vulnerable, please reach out to me to learn more.

Sincerely,

President & CEO VNA Texas

© VNATexas.org 2018
1600 Viceroy Drive, Ste 400, Dallas TX 75235

VNA offers Meals on Wheels in Dallas County, and VNA Hospice Care, Private Care and Care Choices
in Collin, Dallas, Denton, Ellis, Henderson, Kaufman, Rockwall and Van Zandt Counties and parts of Cooke, Grayson, Hunt, Navarro and Tarrant Counties.

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