Hospice reaches out to Spanish-speaking patients

Alfredo Godoy praises Hospice of Yuma for a variety of reasons, but he sums up his most essential point about the agency in a few words:

"The most important thing about Hospice is that they don't have to be in pain."

In the waning days of his wife, Elvia's, battle with terminal colon cancer, Hospice's staff has been at her bedside, administering medicine, checking her vital signs, even combing her hair and dabbing her face with makeup. For him, they've had continuing words of support and encouragement.

And once the cost of Elvia's care had mounted beyond their means, says Alfredo, Hospice found a way to cover the bills.

"The care is very special, very beautiful," he said in Spanish recently as Hospice social worker Liz Lopez and nurse Erica Martinez sat nearby tending to Elvia's needs.

For years, Hospice has provided in-home care for Yuma County's terminally ill, but the Godoys are being served through Camino de Compasión, the organization's more recent initiative that enlists bilingual staff to aid Spanish-speaking patients in a heavily Hispanic region.

"We want to make sure we are reaching out to all cultural groups in our area," said John Williams, Hospice's executive director. "We want to be able to reflect our population, the demographic of our community."

The organization recruited more bilingual personnel, among them Lopez and Martinez, to reach out to terminally ill patients with limited English knowledge.

But the outreach has also involved correcting a bad connotation implicit in the very name of the organization, he said. "Hospicio," the literal translation of "Hospice," can signify for a Spanish-speaker an asylum or poorhouse.

Thus, the same kinds of services traditionally offered by Hospice have been rebranded as Camino de Compasión, or Compassion Road.

The Godoys became part of the program last summer after learning about it from a neighbor, said Alfredo, a retired agricultural worker.

Natives of the Mexicali area in Baja California, the Godoys had been living in Yuma for a number of years by the time Elvia was diagnosed with colon cancer about four years ago, he said.

Elvia had no medical insurance, and the cost of hospitalization and other medical costs mounted, he said.

As the social worker assigned to the Godoys, it was Lopez's task to serve as their advocate in seeking out financial resources to help them with the bills.

"We are free of debts," Alfredo said. "We have nurses, we have doctors. There is good will, good hearts."

As Lopez took Elvia's vital signs on one recent visit to the Godoys' home, Martinez talked to Elvia about applying makeup and hair care. A salon operator has even come in on a volunteer basis to help Elvia with her cosmetics.

Alfredo said he willingly praises Camino de Compasión to anyone he meets.

"It's the least I can do. It's amazing what they do."