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Charity Hospice topic for Wintersville club

GUEST SPEAKER — Cathy Cich, center, founder and CEO of Charity Hospice, was the guest speaker at the Sept. 19 kickoff meeting of the GFWC/OFWC Woman’s Club of Wintersville. With her are Ella Jane Burns, left, home life chairman, and cub President Mary Beth Allan. The club’s next luncheon meeting is Oct. 17, beginning at noon at St. Florian Event Center. -- Janice Kiaski

WINTERSVILLE — As international outreach takes the focus this month, the GFWC/Ohio Woman’s Club of Wintersville will welcome pastor and missionary Tony Foglio as its program presenter when members gather for a noon luncheon and business meeting Oct. 17 at the St. Florian Event Center.

Darlene Woods will offer the meditation and grace and serve as a hostess along with Marjean Sizemore, Pat Ketzell, Lil Ferguson and Kathy Furda.

Members are reminded to bring canned goods for World Food Day for donation to the Wintersville Good Neighbors in addition to adult, women’s and children’s coats for Urban Mission Ministries’ distribution this month.

President Mary Beth Allan presided when the club launched its 2019-20 meeting year on Sept. 19 with the theme on home life and its ongoing project identified as fleece blankets for dialysis patients and also those under the care of Charity Hospice.

Program speaker Cathy Cich, the founder and CEO of the Wintersville-based Charity Hospice, was the guest presenter, sharing that it celebrated its 13th anniversary of serving the local community this past spring.

Families and patients have the right to request a specific hospice as their provider, Cich assured, encouraging members to have informational visits with multiple hospice agencies to see which one offers the best fit for them. The criteria for receiving hospice services includes the patient’s physician certifying that his or her condition is terminal. The basic rule, she explained, is that patients have a life expectancy of six months or less, if the disease follows its normal course.

“Often we see patients who may appear to have given up or resigned themselves to death,” Cich said. “However, once our team is involved, a comprehensive assessment is done, medications are reviewed with our pharmacy benefits manager and often we see a patient do a total turn around. After a month or so, the patient rebounds, and their faith and will to live have been revived,” Cich said.

“Some patients will actually have to be discharged due to their improvement, but Charity Hospice continues to follow the patient and family with our Guardian Angel Program, where we check on the patient once a month. And families are instructed if there’s any change in their loved one’s condition, to call us immediately, and the patient will be evaluated for re-admission to hospice care,” she added.

Cich addressed the multiple changes in hospice care over the years and how quality reporting is now required by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid for all hospice providers so that families can evaluate which hospice to choose. Charity Hospice, she said, scored higher than the national average on all eight of the Consumer Assessment of Health Care Providers and Systems Hospice quality measures related to family satisfaction. She added that CMS also has nine HIS Quality Measures, and Charity also scored higher than the national average on all of those as well.

When patients are dying, Cich explained that they often appear to family as being confused. “Patients may talk to loved ones who have already passed or to people who appear to not be physically present,” she said, addressing “how vital it is for families or loved ones to give the dying patient the much-needed permission to die.”

Cich characterized her love and passion for caring for the terminally ill as “a God-given gift,” given death was her biggest fear in nursing school. She also praised her “wonderful staff,” noting her gratitude in that they demonstrate the same passion she said she has always had as a hospice nurse.

“Our team is extremely close and a true support to the patient, family and each other,” Cich said. “What we have at Charity Hospice is truly a unique environment, and we all feel blessed to be there.”

Opening ceremonies for the business meeting were led by Tyra Timmons, second vice president, who later was applauded for her work on the 2019-20 club year book. Reports were given by Judy Ostrowsky, May minutes; Treasurer Karen Hill; and Aimee Jaros, correspondence that included a thank-you note from Esther Gartland, GFWC Ohio director who had attended the club’s May meeting.

In catching up on club events since the spring meeting, it was noted that the GED reception at Eastern Gateway Community College that the club hosts was attended by more than 100 people. Claudia Dorich, meanwhile, noted she was among club representatives at Indian Creek High School awards banquet to help present the club’s three scholarships. Several members went on an outing to Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens in Pittsburgh, and Allan reported on her and Marjean Sizemore’s attendance at the women’s club international convention held in Austin, Texas.

In community service program committee updates, Natalie Doty, arts, said cards for nursing home residents will be made at the October meeting. She also mentioned a rock painting project being planned with the rocks having an inspirational message.

The meeting included Allan’s nomination to be president of the Southeast District, a position currently held by Pat Ketzell.

A report on Holiday Splendor, the club’s key annual fundraiser to fund scholarships, was given. It will be held Dec. 1 at St. Florian Event Center.

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