"Sentimental Voyages"
Village Ambulance Service and the VNA & Hospice of Northern Berkshire have begun a collaborative effort to provide special transportation for patients in the Hospice of Northern Berkshire inpatient facilities. The goal of this program is to provide free transportation to any local destination a Hospice patient desires as his/her last request. Village Ambulance Service has agreed to provide three complimentary transports per month to destinations in Berkshire County. Each patient can have one or two family members accompany them, with the maximum duration of the transport being six hours long. Time of the transports can be during the day from 7:00AM to 3:00PM or evenings from 3:00PM to 11:00PM.
Press Release:
Granting their final requests Terminal patients' wishes come true through groups
By Jessica Willis, Berkshire Eagle Staff
Article Launched: 12/08/2006 03:02:39 AM EST Friday, December 08
WILLIAMSTOWN — On Monday evening, a 42-year-old Northern Berkshire woman with end-stage lung disease will take in the holiday sights with her husband and 5-year-old child.
"She wants to see the Christmas lights in the county one last time," said Shawn Godfrey, an EMT-paramedic and the operations manager of Village Ambulance.
In a collaboration between Village Ambulance and VNA & Hospice of Northern Berkshire, terminally ill patients in Northern Berkshire are fulfilling some of their final wishes.
Monday's ride around the county is the first trip in "Sentimental Voyages," a program that allows the hospice's patients to take a trip, via a Village Ambulance, to local destinations of their choice.
"It might be something as simple as going to get an ice cream cone or going to the lake to see the trees," said Janet McClelland, the VNA & Hospice of Northern Berkshire's patient care coordinator.
Godfrey said he does not know of any similar program in the state, and Village Ambulance's staff will perform the service on a volunteer basis.
He also said that the trips must remain within the county, and that they most likely will not exceed six hours in length.
"It will be treated just like an ambulance call," he said, adding that the patient can bring two or three family members along on the trip.
The inspiration for Sentimental Voyages came to Godfrey at an EMS conference in Las Vegas last summer, when he heard a lecturer from Colorado speak about a similar service.
"It was very moving," Godfrey said. "I knew I wanted to bring it to the Berkshires." He contacted McClelland, who also thought it was a wonderful idea.
"Its an enhancement of the current services that we offer," she said. "We have patients who are unable to ride in a car and need stretcher transport, and this is perfect for them."
McClelland noted that Sentimental Voyages certainly was a change of pace for the EMTs at Village Ambulance, who are used to providing what she called "emergent, aggressive care." And that's not what a terminally ill patient needs.
Godfrey agreed.
"It's different for us to step back and not be in adrenaline-rush mode," he said.
McClelland said VNA & Hospice of Northern Berkshire serves about 25 patients at their homes or at the hospice, and for those who are being treated in the hospice, a last trip is a simple but indispensable gift.
"Many patients say to me, 'I just want to get home one more time,' " she said.
