Big Bend Hospice

Big bend hospice (big bend) is a not-for-profit community-based health care organization that coordinates care by professionals and volunteers specifically trained to help terminally ill patients and their families in the big bend Florida area. Big bend is here to take the fear out of the unknown and guide patients and their families through the difficulties of dealing with a life limiting illness. We provide each patient with a care team composed of the patient's own physician, a hospice nurse, home hearth aide, family support counselor, music therapist, chaplain, and trained volunteers. We are here to support the patients and their families by providing a holistic approach that includes medical, emotional, social, and spiritual care, maximizing the quality of life when the quantity of life cannot be extended. The house is licensed as a 12-bed inpatient facility to provide hospice care for those patients with a higher level of acuity and who may require round-the-clock (24 hour) skilled nursing care. The organization provides services to its hospice patients and family, as well as to the community at large, for which no reimbursement is received. Such services include hospice care to indigent patients/families, specialized grief and loss counseling to children, teens, and adults, and music therapy as an enhancement to basic hospice care. During FYE 9/30/2023, Big Bend Hospice admitted and served 2,221 patients. BBH's Dozier House served 596 patients and BBH supported 548 patients in skilled nursing facilities and assisted living facilities. Following a terminal diagnosis, patients and families struggling with anticipatory grief are assisted by trained staff. In addition to the anticipatory grief support provided to patients and their loved ones, Big Bend Hospice continues the hospice journey with caregivers and family members after the patient dies through its bereavement program. This includes individual face to face sessions, telephone support, and access to bereavement groups and events. Big Bend Hospice's bereavement program also provides services to the broader Big Bend community through grief groups, camps, and bereavement events. During FYE 9/30/23, the bereavement program provided individual, face-to-face grief support sessions to 619 adults and 184 youth. BBH facilitated 4 six-week Adult Grief Support Groups, a monthly Suicide Loss Support Group (12 sessions), 7 school-based grief support groups (31 sessions), 2 crisis response sessions, 4 holiday bereavement events, monthly Children and Teen Nights, and Teen Woe-Be-Gone. Complimentary therapies provided to patients during FYE 9/30/2023 include 305 hours of animal therapy, 7,988 music therapy visits, and 5,567 spiritual care visits.