Salinas Valley Health Foundation Receives $86,000 Grant for Palliative Care

Media Contact: Karina Rusk
831-759-1843

Salinas, CA, December 19, 2018 – The Hospice Giving Foundation has awarded an $86,000 grant to the Salinas Valley Health Foundation to support the Salinas Valley Health Palliative Medicine Program.

“This generous grant is allowing us to expand our palliative care services,” says Linda Ford, CEO of Salinas Valley Health Foundation. “These funds will go toward the hiring of a part time Palliative Care Nurse Navigator and for the purchasing of tablets which will assist patients with the completion of advance directives, the legal documents that detail their wishes about healthcare decisions at the end of life.”

The Palliative Medicine Program has been serving patients at Salinas Valley Health Medical Center since 2010. In the past two years, with support from medical center leadership and the Hospice Giving Foundation, has expanded strategically to serve more patients and families than ever before.

Palliative care services at Salinas Valley Health are available to any patient facing a serious illness. The goal is to improve quality of life for both the patient and the family. The palliative care team uses a variety of approaches and therapies to control symptoms, manage pain, reduce stress and make the patient more comfortable. This specialized area of medicine has shown to enhance quality of life for patients and their family members, and can help at any age and at any stage of serious illness.

“Prior to 2017, the Palliative Medicine Program at Salinas Valley Health only served people on an in-patient basis however people who are not hospitalized can benefit even more from palliative care,” says Wendell Harry, MD, Director of Palliative Care Services at Salinas Valley Health Medical Center. “We have enhanced our program to include outpatient palliative care, allowing us to provide better symptom management, disease understanding and advance care planning earlier in a person’s illness.”