GSH - Hospice Of Rockland

The mission of United Hospice of Rockland is to provide comprehensive, comfort-oriented care and support services to patients with advanced illness and their families. Hospice neither hastens nor postpones death - it affirms life and regards dying as a normal process. Hospice emphasizes quality of life, and by offering comfort, dignity and control, helps seriously ill individuals live each day to its fullest. Hospice also assists families with the many challenges they face while caring for someone with a life limiting disease. The focus of hospice care is in the home (or other place of residence), enabling patients to remain in a familiar setting and among their loved ones. Hospice also offers bereavement support to any member of the Rockland community who has suffered a loss.

Hospice offers medical, social, emotional and spiritual support for individuals with advanced illness and their families. Care and services are provided as needed by registered nurses, social workers, home health aides, members of the clergy and volunteers. Specially-trained Hospice professionals and volunteers help in ways large and small: offering pain relief through medication and complementary therapies such as massage and therapeutic touch; assisting with personal care, household duties, insurance and finances; offering companionship and spiritual counseling; and providing bereavement services for surviving family members. Our staff is accessible twenty-four hours a day.

Hospice care is covered by most insurance plans, including Medicare, Medicaid and private insurers. Regardless, no one is turned away from Hospice services because of inability to pay.

Hospice is not just for those with cancer. Hospice cares for all individuals with life-limiting illnesses, including cancer; Alzheimer’s Disease; end-stage heart, pulmonary or renal disease; AIDS; Lou Gehrig’s Disease and genetic diseases. Hospice serves those of all ages, races, ethnic and religious backgrounds.

Most families tell us, “We wish we had called Hospice sooner.” Hospice can be most helpful when we work with patients and families for months, rather than days. We encourage patients and/or families facing the diagnosis of a life-limiting illness to contact Hospice before they’re “ready.” Our professional staff can help determine the appropriate time to enroll in our program.

Through UHR’s Provident Bank Hope and Healing Center, Hospice offers a variety of programs and services for individuals who have lost a loved one. Hope and Healing services are open to anyone in the community who has suffered a loss. Many services are free of charge, and others are offered on a sliding fee scale. No one is turned away from our bereavement program for inability to pay. Services include:

Individual counseling sessions with a trained bereavement counselor.
Support groups for adults who have lost a spouse, adults who have lost a parent or sibling, and adults who have lost a child.
Healing Hearts, our support groups for families with young children who have lost a parent. This group includes joint parent-child activities, as well as separate programs for parents and children. Children’s groups incorporate art and music therapy as a way to express and work through grief.

United Hospice of Rockland is the only hospice serving Rockland County. We also serve parts of lower Orange County. Most of our programs are unique and unduplicated elsewhere in the community. UHR is proud to be this area’s primary resource for information and assistance on all topics related to end-of life.

Our Bereavement Services are available to anyone in the community who has lost a loved one.
The UHR Resource Center offers books, audiovisual materials and internet links on many end-of-life topics.
Our Crisis Intervention Team is available to assist in tragedies experienced by schools, businesses, religious congregations and other groups and institutions.
Hospice’s Speaker’s Bureau offers educational programs on a variety end-of-life topics.