The Companion 2020 Annual Report
Created by Blue Ridge Hospice Leadership and the Marketing Department
Our annual report has been published; in it we outline how we performed and some of the services we offered in 2020. To view the full report, please click this link: 2020 Annual Report
2020 was a year of reimagining – a year of learning to adapt to change, a year of learning how to meet the needs of our associates, our patients, and their loved ones in new ways. A year of discovering depths within ourselves and within our connections that we could apply to our mission to ensure that we continued to provide the highest quality of care. We found supplies to ensure our team had the necessary medical and personal protection equipment necessary to continue our work. Many of our team members learned to use online resources as a way to continue to be available to community members who needed us; from Zoom calls for Grief & Bereavement Support to Facebook events for Book Club meetings. We learned to connect through social distancing. We mastered meeting the eyes of those in need through our computer screens; to assuaging sadness over the phone.
Throughout these necessary pivots we found strength in one another. As essential workers, we understood the importance of the services we provided, we felt the weight of our contribution to this community and knew that we needed to continue moving forward. We quickly learned that socially distanced did not need to mean socially disconnected and we found ourselves buoyed by all of the relationships built through our past 40 years of connection with you – the people truly essential to our organization. You – our patients, our volunteers, and our donors. You – all of our friends – without you we would not be able to continue our mission to brighten life’s journey with quality and compassionate care for all whom we are privileged to serve.
Our Music Therapists continued to offer their amazing services and support to patients and their families in Nursing Homes by providing Outdoor Porch Concerts. They played in front of windows and doors to audiences seated inside, singing along and enjoying themselves. They also provided concerts virtually to patients who were in their homes!
Our In-Patient Care Center (ICC) was able to offer relief to the hospital by taking COVID-19 positive patients for 24-hour care.
Our volunteers, in order to continue providing support, began offering “Window Visits” to patients. They stopped by homes to drop off supplies and spent some time chatting through a window, checking in and offering connection.
Our Equine Therapy partner, Holistic Horsemanship Services, continued to offer socially-distanced, outdoor experiences for young adults to learn how to deal with their grief through interactions with horses. “Love this! It helps so much for…how to respond to family and friends on grief issues.”
