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Kansas City Hospice & Palliative Care News

February 2, 2009

For more information contact:

Donna Douglas

ddouglas@kchospice.org

Office: 816-276-2632

Solace House Joins Kansas City Hospice & Palliative Care

Kansas City Hospice & Palliative Care and Solace House are pleased to announce that they have joined forces. The boards of directors for both organizations confirm that Solace House will now become a service of Kansas City Hospice & Palliative Care. The mission of Solace House is to “provide a safe and understanding environment where grieving children and their families can obtain support from counselors, trained volunteer facilitators and other families in similar situations.” The 10-year old organization provides services to children, individuals and families, ages three to adult.

Solace House will remain based in its current State Line Road facility, which offers a creative and educational environment, grief support and counseling services specially designed for grieving children.

“We welcome the opportunity to serve children and their families more fully through the efforts of Solace House and are overjoyed with the wealth of information this talented staff and dedicated volunteers bring to our organization,” said Elaine McIntosh, President and CEO of Kansas City Hospice & Palliative Care.

Solace House approached Kansas City Hospice & Palliative Care about a possible consolidation as difficult economic times made fundraising more difficult, as has been the case for many small nonprofit organizations. “Now, more than ever, we must rise to meet the needs of people who are dealing with life-threatening illness, death or grief,” said Steve Jones, Board of Directors Chairman of Kansas City Hospice & Palliative Care. Solace House is a wonderful complement to our pediatric hospice program, Carousel. The wide spectrum of services offered at Kansas City Hospice & Palliative Care is vital to our community.”

Statistics show that one in seven children will experience the death of a loved one by age 10. Over 60% of grieving children worry that surviving parents will die, and almost 20% worry that they themselves will die. “We at Solace House feel it is such a privilege to provide the unique services that we do, that to collaborate with Kansas City Hospice & Palliative Care, an organization equally dedicated to its mission, makes for a great fit,” said Kate Miles, Clinical and Program Director of Solace House.

Solace House will be a natural extension of Kansas City Hospice & Palliative Care which offers a wide range of services including Hospice House, an inpatient facility in a homelike setting, Palliative Home Care for people currently pursuing curative treatments, Kansas City Palliative Medicine, which provides physicians specializing in comfort care and symptom management, Carousel, a pediatric hospice program and Passages, counseling and resources for difficult life transitions.

Solace House resulted from the vision of two women, Colleen Milett Pelz and Janie Harris Ewell. Following the unexpected death of her husband, Robert, in 1995, Colleen found it difficult to respond to her own children’s questions and emotions, though she was a skilled pediatric nurse. Janie Harris Ewell had experienced childhood grief firsthand, having lost her father at age four. Collaborating together, the two women opened the doors of Solace House in February of 1998.

Additional Information:
http://www.solacehouse.org

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