| What are we? |
|
The
Madre de Amor Hospice Foundation is a non-stock, non-profit
organization providing community-based hospice/palliative
care service. It began in Los Baños in 1994 and currently
covers 23 out of the 30 towns in Laguna.
- The Hospice Center in Los Baños, the first
in the country, is where our patients and their families,
out staff and volunteers gather for consultation, meetings,
training and fellowship.
- We have a growing group of dedicated volunteers who
devote their time and talent to the care of our patients
and their families.
- We have medical equipment like hospital beds, oxygen
tanks, wheelchairs, nebulizers and suction machines
to aid in our patient’s home care.
- We regularly conduct the Volunteer
Training Program for interested volunteers and assist
in setting up independent hospices in other communities.
|
|
|
| What is Hospice? |
Definition of Hospice/Palliative care
The
active total care of patients whose disease is not responsive
to curative treatment.
Control
of pain, of other symptoms and psychological, social and
spiritual problems is paramount.
The
goal of palliative care is the achievement of the best quality
of life for patients and their families.
It
is a concept of care that provides support for the terminally
ill patient and the family, allowing the patient to live
as fully as possible until death. It is a program of palliative
and supportive services, which provides physical, psychological,
social, and spiritual care for the dying persons and their
families. A medically supervised interdisciplinary team
of professional volunteers provides the service.
Hospice,
as an option in the medical care system, exist not to postpone
death but with special skills and therapy, to help the patient
and family live as possible. Death is not denied but life
is affirmed and lived until death comes.
Palliative Care
- provides relief from pain and other distressing symptoms;
- affirms life and regards dying as a normal process;
- intends neither to hasten or postpone death;
- integrates the psychological and spiritual aspects
of patient care;
- offers a support system to help patients live as
actively as possible until dying;
- offers a support system to help the family cope during
the patients illness and in their own bereavement;
- uses a team approach to address the needs of patients
and their families, including bereavement counseling,
if indicated;
- will enhance quality of life, and may also positively
influence the course of illness;
- is applicable early in the course of illness, in
conjunction with other therapies that are intended to
prolong life, such as chemotherapy or radiation therapy,
and includes those investigations needed to better understand
and manage distressing clinical complications.
|
|
|
| What do we do? |
|
Our Mission:
To
provide hospice palliative care including medical, nursing,
emotional, spiritual, and psychosocial support to the terminally
ill patient and their families.
Our Vision:
To
build a strong community-based team of skilled care givers
complimented by a compassionate and dependable group of
volunteers that will provide a holistic approach in the
care and comfort of the terminally ill person in the last
stages of their journey through life.
Our Goals:
- Achieve the best possible quality of life for patients
and their families.
- Organize, develop and strengthen a motivated, responsive
and dependable team of hospice volunteers.
- Establish and develop infrastructure to maximize
effectiveness as a home-based care unit.
- Provide training to perspective volunteers who want
to share their time, talent and treasure.
- Interface with other hospice organizations both here
and abroad.
- Contribute to the spread of the hospice movement
in the country.
- Serve as a model and inspiration to be replicated
in other parts of the province and eventually in other
regions in the country.
- To generate funds in support of the hospice care
program.
|
|
How
it started?
|
 ...the
death of 14 year old Sarah Katrina Adriano from nasopharyngeal
cancer. Her parents, Fermin and Dada, wanted her passing
away to be more than just a memory for her, as Sarah was
their only daughter. They had come across the concept of
hospice in their readings on cancer and were intrigued by
its philosophy of dying with dignity and free from pain.
Unbeknownst to them, a group of women from Manila  (Carol
Guerrero, Ning Basa, Merci Melchor and Marcia Sandoval)
also wanted to put up a hospice in Laguna. A common friend
introduced them and the Madre de Amor Foundation was born.
The first president was Mr. Antonio R. Mercado. He served
as such until his untimely death in 2000. The main project
of the Foundation is the Hospice/palliative care unit in
Los Baños. It is to be the first community based
hospice in the country. It also one of the few hospices
with a successful volunteer program. To date it is the longest
running community based hospice in our country.
 Our
hospice is a home care palliative care unit. In other words
our hospice team visits the patients in their homes. In
the beginning we had to look for patients through friends,
relatives and even the church. But as people learned more
about us, the medical community gradually accepted us and
is now referring to us.
The
Madre de Amor Foundation is now recognized for its role
in the development of the hospice movement in the country.
We serve as resource persons and trainers for groups who
want to put up similar facilities. The Foundation is likewise
a member of the Asia
Pacific Hospice and Palliative Care Network, which consists
of organizations and individuals working for the hospice
movement in the Asia Pacific region. |
| People
involved |
Board of Trustees
|
| |
| Carol
G. Guerrero
Chairman Emeritus
|
| Fermin
D. Adriano, PhD
Chairman
|
Milagros
Monina A. Mercado
President
|
Victorino A. Basco
Vice President/ Treasurer
|
Rhodora del Rosario-Ocampo,
MD
Secretary
|
Members:
|
| Lourdes S. Adriano
|
Iluminada C. del Castillo
|
| Milagros T. Basa
|
Teresita C. Gomzales
|
| Javier Jose L. Calero
|
Manuel C. Lozano
|
| Alicia A. Capiral
|
Marcia E. Sandoval
|
|
Medical
Staff
|
| Rhodora del Rosario-Ocampo,
MD
Program Director
|
| Nurses:
Pretzel Villanueva, R.N
Cristina Matulac, R.N
|
|
| The Volunteers |
|
Considered
as the heart of the hospice foundation. They are trained
individuals who visit patients in their own home, providing
them care, comfort and relief from physical, mental and
spiritual pain.
Learn more about volunteers
here.
|
|
| Office Staff
|
|
|
| Virginia G. Cabrera
Admin Assistant and Volunteer Coordinator
|
| Christine E. Aldipollo
Secretary and Bookkeeper
|
|
|
|
