New business offers home setting in caring for those with life-limiting illnesses
Settled serenely atop a breezy hill near Flatwoods, the nearly 160-year-old Unity School offers a different kind of care to its residents these days. It is Fayette County’s first personal care home designed specifically for people with life limiting illnesses.
Owners John and Bobbi Robinson created Unity, A Journey Home LLC, opening their home in which to care for people with terminal illnesses. The couple bought the former one-room Unity School, complete with cast iron bell, in 2001 when they moved to this area. With help from some family members, they restored the school and added more rooms to the structure.
Unity presently has two residents, each with his own private room and access to a number of services.
John explained he prefers the phrase life limiting illness to terminally ill. But Unity brochures and information use both.
However, the Robinsons stress that Unity is an alternative to more traditional facilities caring for terminally ill patients.
“This is their home. If you come here, this is your home, too. And we have found we learn a lot about living from them,’ Bobbi said.
The couple moved to this area five years ago when Bobbi’s later mother became ill with cancer. That move also provided an opportunity for John to get into the kind of work he wanted to do.
“I always wanted to do hospice,’ John, a registered nurse and Massachusetts native, said. Bobbi grew up on Breakneck Road in Connellsville and also has a nursing background. John received his nursing degree at the Berkshire Community College in Pittsfield, Mass.
“There is only one place in all of Massachusetts that offers hospice and here, there are 38. I have been a nurse for 10 years and have always enjoyed working with the elderly and people with life limiting illnesses,’ he said.
“So, my wife and I decided it would be better to work for ourselves,’ John said.
“Both our residents are on hospice and have their own private physician and hospice director. I can do a daily assessment on them and either call hospice or their doctor,’ John said.
The Robinsons are keeping the home small and limiting the number of people they serve “to keep the individuality we can give. We fall under the personal care home rules. We are private-pay. We are not Medicare approved,’ John said.
“We can have three residents and one more, if it’s a family member. That’s what state law requires before you have to be licensed,’ John added.
When asked how he can emotionally cope with providing the services, John said, “You gotta have a heart and a soul in helping people in this situation. You do more than just work at it for eight hours and then leave. It’s a difficult job but there is a lot of joy in doing it. They give you a lot of joy.’
For example, one of the residents “gets up every day and tells me ‘thank you,’ out of gratitude for what we do for him.’
Each resident has a private room and a number of other services provided through a respite rental agreement. These include phone and television, daily meals, personal laundry, shared Internet access, 24-hour supervision from a licensed caregiver, daily skilled nursing assessment, if needed, administration of medication according to physician instructions, personal incontinence care, an in-room monitor for assistance, transportation on a fee scale and basic personal hygiene items.
Residents must provide their own durable medical equipment, oxygen and supplies, personal grooming and toiletries, incontinent care supplies and medications.
Family and friends may visit between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m. daily.
“When a person is actively dying, 24-hour access is available,’ according to a sample agreement.
Other services available include applying for Dream Foundation, which grants a final wish to a person with a physician-verified document to the life-limiting illness; chiropractic services through Dr. Dianne Rafferty; aroma, hot tub and alternative therapies; a monthly meal for up to four family members; personal video biography and accommodations, for a fee, for out-of-town guests.
While the Robinsons have plans for such things as Memory Garden to memorialize residents and hope to construct an addition, John said, “I can see this really as my primary focus. Hospice is my passion and this requires all my time right now.’
Of course the future of Unity Home depends on “how well it is received here.’
The Robinson hope word-of-mouth advertising helps create a waiting list for Unity.
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For more information on Unity, A Journey Home LLC, call 724-677-4789, 724-963-0771 or email unityajourneyhome@yahoo.com.