Rainbow Hospice

Rainbow Hospice is a 27 year old organization and the second largest non-profit hospice and palliative care provider organization in the Chicago metropolitan area. Located in Park Ridge, Illinois, it serves Cook, Lake, McHenry, Kane, DuPage and Will counties. [ [http://www.rainbowhospice.org/about/ Rainbow Hospice - About Rainbow Hospice, Chicago Area Hospice, Palliative Care ] ]

Rainbow Hospice is accredited by the Community Health Accreditation Program or CHAP as of spring of 2008. As an accrediting body, CHAP has regulatory authorization to survey agencies providing home health and hospice services, to determine whether they meet the Medicare Conditions of Participation (COPs). [ [https://www.chapapps.org/search/stateresults.asp?State=IL&Submit2=Search Community Health Accreditation Program] ]

Rainbow Hospice is the only Chicago Area Hospice to have a full-time pharmacist on staff to provide consultations to patient care staff. In addition Rainbow Hospice also provides access to music therapy, pet therapy, and massage therapy.

For individual hospice patients, patient care teams consist of home health aides, social workers, a hospice chaplain, as well as supervision and consultation from patient care managers, doctors, the Medical Director, and pharmacist.

History

Early History

Rainbow Hospice was created after founder Betty Brosius dealt with her husband's terminal illness and found the area hospital to be lacking in the palliative care her husband was requesting. After his death in 1979, Betty convened her minister, a social worker and one additional friend, to formulate a plan to provide comfort and care to others who might be going through the same situation that her husband had gone through. In 1981, paperwork was filed for a nonprofit license and with initial financial support and office space provided by the First United Methodist Church of Des Plaines, Rainbow Hospice was born.

Park Ridge

After serving a dozen families following its formation in 1981, Rainbow Hospice outgrew its space in Des Plaines. Beginning in 1990, Rainbow Hospice moved to a few new locations before acquiring the current headquarter location at 444 North Northwest Highway in Park Ridge, Illinois.

Betty Brosius

Founder, Betty Brosius, continued working with Rainbow Hospice until her retirement in early 2004. In 2003, Betty was diagnosed with terminal non-alcoholic cirrhosis and became a patient of Rainbow Hospice who cared for her until her death in March of 2004. [ [http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-1525674.html Chicago Sun-Times] ]

Inpatient Unit

In 2006, Rainbow Hospice began the creation of an Inpatient Unit, a specialized facility used by hospices to serve critical care patients in an environment where they have 24 hour access to direct care. After a year of planning and renovation, the Rainbow Hospice Ark, a 15 room Inpatient Unit, opened on November 11, 2007.

The Rainbow Hospice Ark is located in a self-contained wing at St. Matthews Center for Health in Park Ridge, IL, a long-term facility that was built in 1959. The design and renovation team was specifically tasked to create a variety of home-like subspaces, for family groups and visitors. In 2008, the Ark was awarded a design merit citation by Healthcare Design Magazine. [ [http://www.healthcaredesignmagazine.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=9C1D8AFF47604273815B68CD6BE372A7&nm=News&type=news&mod=News&mid=9A02E3B96F2A415ABC72CB5F516B4C10&tier=3&nid=D9ED141EBCE14ED0B90AF0A1F9B0F139 Design 2008 Best-In-Show] ]

Bereavement Services

The bereavement program began as a whole in 1992, however, portions of the program - Widowed Support, which is more than 30 years old, and the Good Mourning Children's Program, which is more than 20 years old - were external groups that were added on as the program grew.

Rainbow Hospice's Bereavement Program provides services to cover all areas of loss to both hospice families as well as the community at large. [ [http://www.rainbowhospice.org/bereavement/intro.asp Rainbow Hospice - Bereavement - Rainbow Hospice Bereavement Support ] ]

Bereavement Services at Rainbow Hospice include:
* Professional Counseling Service
* Specific Loss Support Groups (Parent, Sibling, Child, Spouse, Sudden Loss)
* Interfaith Memorial Services
* Clinical Consultations & Referrals
* Community & Professional Education Programs
* Volunteer Support
* The Good Mourning Program for Children, Teens and Families
* Widowed Support Services

Good Mourning Program

The Good Mourning Program for Children, Teens and Families is a 20 year old bereavement support group. The program is unique in that it has concurrent support for both the children and their parents or guardians within the same program. Children are taken through a healthy grieving process while adults are both helped in their grieving process as well as trained to assist their child.

Other specialized services from Good Mourning include a summer family camps in the Chicago area, short-term support groups, monthly support programs and holiday gatherings.

Grief in School Program

The Good Mourning staff also provides assistance to schools in need of bereavement services. Rainbow Hospice provides intervention teams for crisis consultation and debriefing for indictments in schools. In conjunction with the LIFE Institute for Learning, bereavement staff also provides grief management training to schools, colleges and professionals.

LIFE Institute

The Rainbow LIFE Institute for Learning is the educational arm of Rainbow Hospice. LIFE stands for: Leading Innovators For end of life Education. The LIFE Institute provides programs and continuing education unit (CEU) opportunities for health care, social work and educational professionals in all areas of palliative care and bereavement.

Affiliations

* [http://www.reshealth.org/rhcservices/service_detail.cfm?rhcServiceID=39 Resurrection Health Care System]
* [http://www.advocatehealth.com/ Advocate Health Care System]

Hospital Affiliations

* [http://www.advocatehealth.com/gshp/ Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital]
* [http://www.advocatehealth.com/immc/ Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center]
* Advocate Lutheran General Hospital
* [http://www.alexianbrothershealth.org/services/abmc/ Alexian Brothers Medical Center]
* [http://www.reshealth.org/sub_hfmc/ Holy Family Medical Center]
* [http://www.macneal.com/home.aspx MacNeal Hospital, Berwyn]
* [http://www.nch.org/index.shtml Northwest Community Hospital]
* [http://www.reshealth.org/sub_olr/ Our Lady of the Resurrection Medical Center]
* [http://resurrectionmedicalcenter.reshealth.org/sub_rmc/default.cfm Resurrection Medical Center]
* [http://www.alexianbrothershealth.org/services/stalexius/ St. Alexius Medical Center]
* [http://www.reshealth.org/sub_smemc/ St. Elizabeth Hospital, Chicago]
* [http://www.reshealth.org/sub_smemc/default.cfm St. Mary of Nazareth Hospital Center]
* [http://saintfrancishospital.reshealth.org/sub_sfh/default.cfm St. Francis Hospital]
* [http://saintjosephhospital.reshealth.org/sub_sjh/default.cfm St. Joseph Hospital, Chicago]
* [http://www.reshealth.org/sub_wh/ Westlake Hospital]
* [http://www.reshealth.org/sub_wsmc/ West Suburban Medical Center]
* [http://www.roph.org/ Rush Oak Park Hospital]

ee also

* Grief & trauma counseling
* Grief counseling
* Grief therapy
* Hospice

Notes

External Links

* [http://www.RainbowHospice.org Rainbow Hospice Homepage]
* [http://www.hospicefoundation.org/ Hospice Foundation of America]
* [http://www.nahc.org/haa/ Hospice Association of America]
* [http://nhpco.org/templates/1/homepage.cfm National Hospice & Palliative Care Organization]
*Geolinks-US-buildingscale|42.016405|-87.838467