Community Palliative Care: Volunteer Support for Patients At Home
What distinguishes Community Palliative Care of Northern New Mexico is our recognition that coordinated palliative care needs to be delivered to patients not only in a hospital setting, but in their homes. We provide this to patients throughout the community pro bono or on a sliding fee scale, to ensure that ANYONE can receive appropriate support, regardless of their financial status.
Our Mission:
To alleviate suffering and enhance the quality of life of patients and their loved ones confronting life-limiting illness, by providing comprehensive palliative care services at home.
Our Vision:
To provide compassionate care to patients with perhaps life-limiting diagnosis by supporting them as they navigate an increasingly complex array of medical and personal options.
To provide practical support to patients and their caregivers by skilled volunteers.
To coordinate the patient’s care with all members of the medical team of their choosing, easing the burden on patient and caregivers.
To provide on-going education about palliative care and options for medical treatments, not only to our volunteers but also to health care professionals and all interested members of the community. This outreach will continue to include education on the MOST form (Medical Orders for Scope of Treatment), End of Life Options, and myriad resources supporting quality of life.
Palliative Care in Santa Fe: A Brief History
The roots of palliative care in Santa Fe can be traced to our community’s exemplary response to the AIDS crisis of the mid-1980s. Faced with an exponentially growing number of persons with AIDS and the urgent need for compassionate in-home care—not only for those who were ill or dying, but for their loved ones too—Santa Fe’s physicians, nurses, and scores of volunteers came forward in response to this epidemic.
Santa Fe is rightly known for its many caring organizations, and during this time, our community grew an even deeper heart for service: caring, individualized, and focused on those most in need.
Today, we are called on to respond to the needs of many more people who are coping with life-limiting diagnoses. And so, once again, we’re in urgent need of trained, skilled health-care professionals who specialize in this kind of care—and, just as much, we require trained volunteers who, with their skills and service, can augment the work of these highly in-demand professionals. These gaps in medical care can easily be supplemented with community palliative care.
We at Community Palliative Care of Northern New Mexico continue in our dedication to the mission. We provide intensive, comprehensive training to our volunteers: with this, they support patients and their families with practical, everyday assistance and real connection.
