Creating compassionate care in a hospice home
Very few folks would have funded something this new and risky. It was an idea, a concept a good one, but as yet untried. Yet the folks at Hospice Giving Foundation understood what it could mean to this community, to the very people they serve.
The concept, now becoming a program, is a “social model hospice home,” designed to provide a quality end-of-life experience for those who otherwise may not have the resources or ability to live out their final days in comfort and peace. Conceived by a group of local professionals doctors,
nurses, administrators, pharmacists, chaplains, coordinators, and volunteers the program is an initiative of the Jerry Rubin Foundation. Established in 2021, the foundation pays tribute to and continues the work of the late Dr. Jerome Rubin, who spent his career caring for cancer patients, researching new treatments, and advocating for Medicare to cover hospice care across the county.
Rubin also created support groups for his patients, which
grew into the “Cancer Recovery Project,” a program that developed into Hospice of the Monterey Peninsula, and later, into Hospice House, a 28-bed facility in Monterey, now Westland House.
In 2018, Rubin succumbed to acute myelogenous leukemia. The new social model hospice home is called, in tribute, “Jerry's Place.”
“Hospice Giving Foundation had its genesis in Jerry Rubin's programs,” said President and CEO Siobhan Greene. “When people from Jerry's Place were brainstorming what they could do for people who need hospice care but don't have the resources, we said let's hone this big idea down to something manageable we can sustain.”
While it was a risk to fund a program with no track record, Greene understood how well it aligned with the Hospice Giving Foundation mission, driven by the belief that being informed, and having choices and excellent care through end-of-life enables grace, honor, and dignity.
“So, we made a big commitment, giving Jerry's Place a grant for $200,000. We took this risk,” said Greene, “because we believe in the integrity of the people pursuing this program, and we believe it is the right thing to do for people in our community.”