Making Moments Matter: Forrest General Hospital’s Hospice Program Is a Blessing to Many Families

HATTIESBURG, Miss. – (May 30, 2024) Forrest General Hospital’s Hospice Program has been helping make moments matter for patients and their families for 30 years. With compassion and comfort, dignity and grace, a person’s life is honored and celebrated. It’s these times and moments that those who have experienced hospice remember and reflect on.

Andi Butler of Hattiesburg was in graduate school for social work when her father, an attorney with a PhD, and a perfectly healthy man, or so it seemed, returned from a mission trip. “When he got home, he said, ‘I can’t tell you what 2 + 2 is.’ We knew then there was a problem,” said Butler. “We got him to a physician who found a baseball size tumor, glioblastoma, in his brain. He was given two months to live. It hit us out of left field.”

Butler remembers asking the neurosurgeon during her dad’s experimental treatment program what they were doing for him. “I knew what they had been doing to him,”’ she said. “My brothers and I could see he was getting tired and was not responding to the treatment program he was enrolled in. We were all in turmoil, and all we wanted was to wrap our arms around him and love him for the days we had left. We wanted hospice.”

They took their dad home where he was placed on home hospice and later passed away. “It was then that I saw what bringing services to a patient at home was all about and what a big difference it made in the life of the patient and the family,” said Butler. “And that’s what I wanted to do with my life – hospice social work.”

Butler said emotionally she needed some time to separate herself and her experience from other people. “I worked in ICU for 15 years, as I prayed about what I wanted to do,” she said. “I was ready for a change. I told my brothers during a family dinner that I’d been praying about my career path. Some colleagues tried to talk me out of a career in the field of hospice, but I didn’t want to look back at the end of my career and have only worked in ICU. My heart was in hospice. On Labor Day weekend in 2018, I went to work with hospice and I’ve never looked back. I love it, and it is an absolute blessing in my life.”

That blessing has carried over into a job she’s lived and loved for the last six years.

As a hospice social worker with Forrest General, Butler said her job and that of the other social workers she works alongside, is concentrated on counseling the family or patient. “As a patient and as family members, they are all trying to wrap their head around the fact they have been given a terminal diagnosis, and are looking at end-of-life care,” she said. “Where we come in is to help them process what is happening in their lives as they face a terminal illness.”

Butler looks to see if she needs to make referrals for outside sources such as waivers, Meals on Wheels, and other tasks while literally holding somebody’s hand and walking through the journey of end-of-life care they are trying to process. “It’s also a time when I think people of all ages are starting to reflect about their life – the impact they have had, the value of their life, providing emotional support, and helping them process what is happening, because their head is spinning,” she said.

Part of what she provides for the hospice team is helping them assess ways to aid the caregiver in handling what lies in front of them. “Can they handle it? Because sometimes just because you’ve been put in that position doesn’t mean that you can handle what is happening. We help them brainstorm ideas and tips on how to care for their loved one. Alongside the nurses, you are right there in the thick of things. Primarily, we provide emotional support by lending them an ear and actively listening to their needs, and then we try and meet those psycho-social needs.”

“We are not in control,” Butler said. “I find great comfort in that. As human beings, we are not in control. We try and encourage families to listen to their loved ones and see what is happening on a different level. We are in this physical world. When you start seeing that a person’s spirit is growing stronger, and the physical is getting weaker, it’s happening. You have to listen; you may not want to, but you have to listen.”

“People ask me, ‘How do you do this; it’s so sad and difficult.’ And yes, it is painful and difficult. But it’s also beautiful and a privilege, I absolutely love it. It’s definitely not easy, but at the same time it truly is an honor and privilege to walk through this incredibly specialized time in a person’s life.”

For Scott Hall, whose 98-year-old grandmother, Inez, was a recent hospice patient at Asbury Hospice House, Asbury was where his family wanted her to be.

“When Scott’s dad was here about four years ago, we were so impressed by the care and compassion he received, so, of course, when they said Ms. Inez would need to be placed on hospice, we were praying we could get into Asbury,” said Tonya, Scott’s wife. “We said she went from Motel 6 to the Ritz when she arrived here.”

Scott said as soon as his grandmother was admitted, they bathed her and washed her hair. “And even though she can’t communicate, we know she had to be just loving it. She got here and it was like a breath of fresh air.”

 “To us, it was very important for her to be able to be here,” said Tonya. “There is more one-on-one care here, and everyone is just so precious.”

Scott, who spent the first night in his grandmother’s room, admitted that it was the first night he had truly slept. “I slept the hardest I’d slept,” he said. “I felt relaxed and restful knowing she was being taken care of.”

Tonya said if Asbury had not been an option, Mrs. Hall would have had to go back to her nursing home and hospice would have had to come in. “We wouldn’t have been able to come in at night, so that really means a lot,” she said.

“We are, no doubt, Asbury’s No. 1 cheerleader,” Scott said. “You don’t want to be in this situation, but if you have to be, this is where you want to be.”

Even for hospice workers, the time with a hospice patient is truly special.

Pamela Knight, a 30-year worker with Forrest General Hospital’s Hospice program, remembers a 33-year-old man who had been diagnosed with cancer and didn’t have long to live.

“I only had him for maybe two or three weeks, but we became very close,” she said.

One Saturday, she received a call from her nurse manager saying the man had requested she come to his home. “He just couldn’t get comfortable,” Knight explained. “As I was working with him to get him in a comfortable position, he passed away and transitioned on. I always wondered if he called me there so I could comfort his wife and daughters. I will always cherish that moment because I believe I made a difference in their life at that time when they needed me the most.”

There were truly ‘golden’ moments for a young hospice patient at Asbury Hospice House and those who took care of her. Wanda “Cissy” Strickland, director of Forrest General Hospital Hospice said the patient was a 12-year-old girl with cancer. “She was in great pain down the entire left side of her body,” she said. “Her favorite song and show was ‘The Golden Girls.’ Every time I walked through her door, I would sing ‘The Golden Girls’ theme song, and she would chime in and sing with me. The TV stayed on that station around the clock. We loved that for her, but it also brought us a little bit of joy during that time, because it brought a little smile to her face and something in that second that took her mind away from her pain.”

It’s these moments and memories that make hospice a special time – a time to reflect and remember and celebrate the lives of loved ones. Forrest General Hospital Hospice does make moments matter.

ABOUT FORREST HEALTH

Forrest Health is a system of healthcare organizations formed to increase access to quality health care in south Mississippi. Forrest General Hospital is its flagship hospital. In addition to Forrest General, Forrest Health hospitals include: Highland Community Hospital, Picayune; Jefferson Davis Community Hospital & Extended Care Facility, Prentiss; Marion General Hospital, Columbia; Pearl River County Hospital & Nursing Home, Poplarville; Perry County General Hospital, Richton; and Walthall General Hospital, Tylertown. Forrest Health is also home to The Orthopedic Institute and Institute of Neuroscience, both in Hattiesburg, as well as a variety of healthcare clinics throughout its 19-county coverage area.