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SB Agencies
updated: Aug 07, 2012, 11:35 AM

By Edhat Subscriber

Didn't realize until today there are three hospice providers in Santa Barbara and the differences in their services. What can Edhat readers' share about their experiences with different agencies?

Most recent Comments first | (reverse order)

COMMENT 306116	2012-08-08 09:22 PM
We used Serenity House for a loved one when it was at Valle Verde as well. The staff were great. We are very fortunate to have them here.
YIN YANG	2012-08-08 05:37 PM
Thank you, EdHatBarbara! (I do NOT work for either organization) Visiting Nurses & Hospice Care (1 organization) is amazing. Many of us in town know that from personal experience. I can't praise or thank them enough. I've had friends who got counseling services at Hospice of SB and praised them as highly. If you are at all contemplating any service like this, please call them both! Hospice of SB: http://www.hospiceofsantabarbara.org/ Visiting Nurses & Hospice Care: http://www.vnhcsb.org/ It IS confusing when you first encounter both organizations.
EDHATBARBARA	2012-08-08 04:57 PM
I am a volunteer with VNHC which runs Serenity House and I volunteer there every other week. I also sing with the Threshold Choir, which visits at Sarah House once a month to provide comfort to those who are staying there during their time of need. As a result, I have personal experience with both facilities. I also have volunteered for folks who needed assistance at home during their dying process. My own father died at a hospice inpatient facility and my younger sister died at home, using hospice services. So, I have personal experience with both kinds of assistance. Based on that experience, I can say that there is room for everything. Serenity House offers a level of privacy, comfort and attention to the family and loved ones of the dying that is unique, personal and extraordinarily special. I wish my father had the chance to experience it and I wish I had the support then that is offered now. Not every person accepted into Serenity House's care pays for it. VNHC tries to obtain payment through a variety of sources, but accepts patients on a need basis, regardless of ability to pay. So the comment that it is solely for the wealthy is misinformed, at best. Sarah House is operated by some of the most caring people I have ever come across in my life. I feel as though I'm a better person for having the opportunity to interact with them. They are as genuine as they come and their concern is truly for the comfort of the individuals they serve without regard for monetary remuneration. It is a safe, social-based hospice inpatient system that satisfies the need for a certain segment of our community very well. And, some people want to die at home and have the loving support of caring family and friends to enable that to occur. Hospice provides assistance in myriad ways to ease the transition for these people. The cost gets billed to MediCare, MediCal and private insurance, just like the cost of Serenity House does. What isn't paid that way is covered by donations and contributions -- and not just sizeable ones from the wealthy but also smaller ones from ordinary folks like me (and perhaps you). If not for Serenity House, Sarah House and the hospice organizations, our community's ill and dying (and their families) would suffer considerably mor... [ more ]
COMMENT 305931	2012-08-08 02:35 PM
A friend of many years just spent the last couple of days of his life at Serenity House. God Bless those who have the calling to ease someone's suffering in their final hours and to be there for the friends and family who have lost someone they love.
COMMENT 305659P	2012-08-08 07:50 AM
It is too bad that the new Serenity House was built to resemble a high end spa with the result that a month there runs into the thousands. A friend was told the cost and decided that it was out of her range. It is sad that some people in our town think that building an expensive facility for those facing end of life need all that spa environment. I have been a supporter of hospice in several towns, and have used the services of hospice here and in FL, but resent how the SB Serenity House has become a place for the wealthy.
COMMENT 305653P	2012-08-08 07:40 AM
Sarah House is a Not for profit in bed home hospice. It serves the needs of those terminally ill on the slightly lower economic scale, has great heart, and it has been said, "offers all those things that money can't buy".
COMMENT 305533	2012-08-07 04:58 PM
Serenity House is the absolute best! My dad felt he was on "top of the world" during his final days. Amazing experience for him and our family.
COMMENT 305478	2012-08-07 01:55 PM
Ditto what Edhatbarbara said.
FANGIRL	2012-08-07 01:48 PM
A dear friend was in Sarah House for the last few months of his life. The staff there was wonderful. He was also on Hospice Care before he moved to Sarah House for about 6 months. I can't say enough about how great everyone that we dealt with was.
COMMENT 305461	2012-08-07 01:15 PM
We used Serenity House when it was on Calle De Los Amigos, by Valle Verde. It's the staff that matter, the nurses and aides were a godsend
COMMENT 305444	2012-08-07 12:19 PM
Serenity House...Is that what that brand-new building is up on Miramonte? I guess if I had to choose somewhere to spend my last days, I could do a lot worse than there. Awesome views.
EDHATBARBARA	2012-08-07 12:12 PM
By the way, it is VNHC which supports and manages Serenity House, an inpatient hospice facility on the Mesa. It is wonderful.
EDHATBARBARA	2012-08-07 12:11 PM
Visiting Nurse and Hospice Care is the medical arm, providing nursing and medicinal services during the last six months or less of terminal illness. It takes a doctor's referral to gain its services and charges are billed through insurance, Medi-Care and Medi-Cal. It is a non-profit organization. Hospice of Santa Barbara is the counseling/social work arm, providing services to the grievingand the ill regardless of diagnosis; no doctor referrals are required. They have group and individual counseling, mentoring for children who survive deceased parents or siblings, alternative therapies and a host of volunteers who provide respite services, transportation and company, all at absolutely no charge to anyone. It too is a non-profit organization. I have been trained by and volunteer with both. The third hospice organization is a for-profit one, and although I have not worked directly with it, I understand that it provides medical services as well.
COMMENT 305432	2012-08-07 12:02 PM
They tend to work together... when my father was terminally ill we had nurses coming from Visiting Nurses to give me a break and then regular nurse from SB Hospice came by and took care of his meds. When I could no longer care for him at home he moved into Serenity House and lived there for the last year of his life. They were amazing

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