Statements
Mission
Our mission is to embrace those who need a safe, comfortable, and peaceful home-like setting to spend their final days and to ensure all their needs are met, both physically and spiritually. Most importantly, we want our residents to know they were loved in their final days.
Background
In June of 2022, Catholic Comfort Care Homes signed the lease on their first home, Heart of Mary House, and began the work of serving the dying poor. We took in our first resident in September of 2022 and have since served 13 guests (and their loved ones). This has enabled individuals to spend their final days in comfort, peace, and with dignity. More so, we have provided housing and loving care to individuals who had no family at all and/or were homeless prior to living at Heart of Mary House.
The first, and only, home established so far is the Heart of Mary House in Nashville, TN. It is a community home for terminally ill people who are in need of housing, 24/7 care and have nowhere else to go in their time of need. Our first resident was welcomed into a 2-bedroom 900 sq ft basement home. We have no geographical restrictions, although most of our guests come from the greater Nashville area.
In addition to End-of-Life Care, we offer Community Education programs. Through our Community Education program, we partner with schools to give a variety of students the opportunity to observe and actively serve in our holistic approach to end-of-life care. They are observing the dying process as a family event rather than a medical one. This is an opportunity for us to educate and influence initial death and dying experiences in a way that can enhance their personal lives and gives an opportunity to exercise the works of mercy from Matthew 25. Our Community Education program includes speaking engagements at churches and schools, and opportunities for hands on care and open tours at the Heart of Mary House.
As a Social Model Hospice, we do not receive any county, state or federal funding, nor do we seek insurance reimbursement. We are supported entirely by charitable giving.
We receive overwhelmingly positive feedback from family members, volunteers and hospice teams. Families, whether estranged for many years, or currently engaged in the residents' lives, express immense gratitude for the continuous dignified care provided to their loved one during the last days and weeks of their life. Volunteers express a healing of their own past experiences with their loved ones' deaths and overall, a sense of a loving presence in the house. The hospice teams, who provide the medical portion of the residents' care, speak of the peace and tranquility, in addition to the superior observant 24/7 care provided to the residents.
Impact
Catholic Comfort Care Homes came to fruition out of an expressed and witnessed need in the community. There are people who, after facing acute or chronic illness, find themselves admitted to the hospital and suddenly facing a terminal diagnosis needing to be discharged to a safe environment where someone will care for them 24/7. The unfortunate scenario, time and time again, is that more people than the general public may realize either have no family at all or do not have a family capable of caring for the needs of someone at the end of their life. Our Executive Director worked as a hospice nurse in a variety of capacities over the course of 12 years and most recently as a hospice liaison, working closely with case managers within the hospital trying to find placement for people with a prognosis of days to weeks. Unfortunately, Medicare does not provide assistance with housing costs, nor do they provide assistance with caring for a terminally ill family member. There may not be enough time or resources to apply for Medicaid, either. There are often zero other options. We have paid staff in order to offer 24 hour care and we supplement with over 25 volunteers who serve our residents in 3 hour shifts providing assistance with personal care and other duties as needed within the house. Together, we provide cooking, cleaning, laundry, music therapy, and more. Our residents spend their final hours, days, or weeks at Heart of Mary House because they know it is a home where they will find comfort and where they will be able to safely live out the final phases of their life's journey. They are consoled, fed, bathed, and loved, and this is done at no cost to the resident or their family. This fills a critical gap in services that are not covered by medical hospice, Medicare or private insurance. The compassion and concern we have for our residents creates a ripple effect and often, after their passing, many of the members of our residents' families have decided to 'pay it forward' out of their sincere appreciation. This is either done monetarily or through volunteering their time and talents.
Needs
Sponsor a Resident: The care we provide costs $480 per day, which includes 24/7 caregivers, nourishment, laundry services including needed clothing and linens, and the organizational costs to run the home. The average length of stay for our residents is 8 weeks. A sponsorship of $27,000 would provide 8 weeks of dignified end-of-life care to persons who would otherwise be left in the hospital or be discharged to an unsafe environment without proper care.
Home Modifications Fund: We currently serve our residents in a 900 sq ft basement. We have two semi-private bedrooms, a half bath, and an open concept living room and kitchen. Our washer and dryer is upstairs. One of the bedrooms does not have a permanent wall separating it from the living room (we have curtains), therefore, in order to maintain a quiet environment, we only use the far side of that room for resident quarters, the side on the curtain end is used as a sitting room. Our kitchen has a small sink, microwave, and refrigerator. We utilize a hot plate and countertop oven to prepare meals. Our goal is to raise $150,000 by 5/31/2024. We plan to have 3 to 4 private bedrooms, a full bathroom with a walk-in shower, a full size washer and dryer downstairs and a kitchen with proper amenities.
CEO Statement
The mission of Catholic Comfort Care Homes is incredibly unique. Watching the first home come to fruition has been inspirational! Heart of Mary House is growing and thriving in ways I never even imagined. One of my most favorite things is when we are waiting for a resident to arrive; I love making their bed with the fresh and clean linens, making sure the mattress is comfy, that the room smells nice and that it is warm and welcoming once they arrive. It gives me time to think about them and wonder about the lessons and gifts we will all take away from their stay. Once they arrive we are busy getting to know them and taking care of the logistical welcomings. I also love getting to introduce our volunteers to each resident. They seem to impact our volunteers in unique and meaningful ways. The irony being that the volunteers' intention is to impact the residents and bring them joy. It does not take much to make them feel at peace and for them to know that they are loved! And to those of us at the bedside, we are often more touched than they are, but the gifts run both ways and grace seems to abound in every direction. Each resident we have served so far has brought special meaning to the home and are often remembered fondly.
Having a neutrally grounded space also offers families an opportunity to heal past wounds and come together for their loved one.
Every person deserves to die with dignity and respect. Heart of Mary House is the only place in Nashville and middle Tennessee that offers such care in a home-like setting. The 13 residents we have served so far would have had a much different final chapter in their lives had Heart of Mary House not been there to take them in. It is easy for me to get caught up in the day to day functions of the home and forget to pause and really observe what exactly is unfolding in the home. The person lying in the bed, with warm clean linens, after being cleaned from head to toe in warm eucalyptus bath water and rubbed down with lotion, dressed in a new lovely gown, being fed warm homemade soup, comfortable, safe and at peace, gives me hope! It gives me hope that this can actually be done time and time again and for countless people! The need is so great and we have not even touched the iceberg. The more people we serve, the further of a ripple effect we have on the community, which brings about more people who will learn about where they can go to get help.
I am so thankful for our volunteers and our generous donors who help us fill this gap in our community and allow us to serve someone in their greatest time of need.
Board Chair Statement
The mission of Catholic Care Comfort Homes (CCCH) is to provide people in need with compassionate
care and God filled dignity and peace through what could be the most frightening and lonely times of
their lives. Many of us are blessed to know that when we pass from this life we will be loved and cared
for as needed, yet not all are. Based on personal experience, we know that is not the case and that an
environment like what is provided by CCCH should be available to all those who have nowhere to go. A
retired healthcare worker recently commented, "I just have to say that the CCCH facility is wonderful! It
is heartbreaking to release people and know they have no place to go. As a healthcare worker, it weighs
on your conscious! Short of bringing them home with you, many times there are few choices. God bless
you, you are making a difference in their lives and giving them a more comfortable passing."
Since the establishment of CCCH 13 different families have felt the effect of this support. We receive
residents filled with fear, confusion, and despair. Yet through the help of more than 80 different
volunteers, thousands of hours of compassionate bedside care have been provided to them. As
impactful as the care has been, much of it is through the hard work and long hours of a small core
group. Our challenge is not to allow this to be a one-off experience limited to a select few provided by a
handful of skilled caregivers, but to scale this model to respond to the cry of those in need with
unabashed quality and consistency.
To respond at the level needed we must be confident in the care provided at any hour of any day. The
past twelve months have been a great period of learning, development, and problem solving for the
team. Understanding this we have begun the process of formalizing the established procedures and
practices thus creating a means of institutionalizing these best practices. However, this alone is not
enough to ramp up the skill level of all involved at the speed needed. Every day there are families and
healthcare professionals reaching out and looking for help. This sense of urgency is felt daily. To
augment the governance practices described earlier, we are also searching for means to create a service
model that provides a blend of paid and voluntary coverage every hour of every day. We believe
providing a specifically qualified resource, complimented by a volunteer team, will create a mentorship
model capable of growing with the demands of the needy.
It is our vision that through good governance, planned fundraising, responsible fiscal management, and
complimentary mentorship, CCCH will continue to grow and provide the needed care helping soften the
cry and despair of those in need.
Service Categories |
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| Primary Category: | Human Services - Residential Care & Adult Day Programs |
| Secondary Category: | Housing, Shelter - Housing & Shelter NEC |
| Tertiary Category: | Human Services - Hospice |
Areas Served
Our home is located in the 37211 zip code, however, we accept people from all over the state. Part of the desire in founding Catholic Comfort Care Homes was to be able to have homes all across the mid-state. When our residents are from rural areas in the outskirts of Nashville and they also have family or friends who live in those rural areas, it is often very challenging for them to continue to be a part of their life. We like to be able to engage the family as much as possible.
| TN - Davidson |
