When Your Family Needs End-of-Life Care

Death and dying. They are difficult topics to discuss with family members, let alone provide care when they're nearing the end of their time on earth. But Montezuma County has a resource that can help. You're watching the "Local News Network" in Montezuma County, brought to you by Choice Building Supply and the LOR Foundation. I'm Connor Shreve. When the Cox family learned that their mom, Betty Jean, had been diagnosed with multiple myeloma, the three brothers, their wives, and father did what they could do to help, but they found the task overwhelming.

We were trying to keep the business running, trying to take care of my mother, trying not to get on each other's nerves. We didn't really understand a lot about the process of dying, honestly, so we had a lot of questions, had nobody to answer them because we were trying to do it all ourselves. Like a ship with no captain, basically. We were all trying to help and do the right things and didn't really have a clue what we were doing. Still trying to give her cancer medicine, still trying to do... I don't know, it was just frustrating from a... watching your mother go through that.

Then, after another one of many emergency trips to the hospital, Betty Jean's doctor advised the family to take her home, make her comfortable, and contact Hospice of Montezuma. Though wary at first about a stranger coming into their home, the Cox family came to appreciate the support Hospice staff provided. Founded in 1985, the nonprofit Hospice of Montezuma provides skilled nursing care, everyday living support, emotional support for families, and bereavement care. The agency also operates a library that provides free wheelchairs, canes, walkers, and other durable medical equipment on loan for free. Hospice of Montezuma accepts insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, and if a patient has no financial resources whatsoever, services are free.

We go in and assess the situation. And if that person actually qualifies for Hospice care, we go in and we start helping that person wherever they are. So, whether it be an assisted living facility at home, any place, we can meet those person's needs.

Betty Jean Cox died shortly after her family brought her home, but Rodney Cox, the second of three sons, said he was so impressed with the care his mother received that he agreed to volunteer as a board member for the nonprofit organization. Now, he's its president. Cox knows that families may be reluctant to seek outside help for a dying loved one, as they were. Nevertheless, he urges them to contact Hospice to learn more about the services available.

Hospice of Montezuma was built by our community for the benefit of our community and the members in our community. I would want people to know that families don't have to do it alone, and that we work at their pace, opposed to anybody else's pace. And it's whatever comfort level they're good with. And I would want them to know that our staff is so compassionate and so caring, and that they're there to help. And this is what we specialize in, and that is our goal. It's our mission, and it's our desire to help as many people as we can, and you don't have to do it alone.

Cox says he and his family believed they provided their mother with the best care that they could during her last days, but he does have one regret.

Probably called Hospice in about two weeks too late for her, but they came in and were a blessing.

To learn more about Hospice of Montezuma services or to register for the April 16th class on Advanced Directives, visit the nonprofit's website at hospiceofmontezuma.org. Thanks for watching. Want to learn more about our area? Visit our website at montezumalocal.news. I'm Connor Shreve.