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What is “Hospice Care”?

Hospice enhances the quality of life and alleviates
the burden of the terminally ill and their loved ones by giving them:

Control 
Patients are encouraged to articulate their desires and needs and to participate in choices about their own care.

 Comfort 
Emphasis is on pain management and symptom control.

 Familiarity 
Care is given in the location where the patient feels most comfortable-usually in the home.

Dignity 
Our Hospice staff provides the support and expertise to allow a patient to live their lives to the fullest until the very end.

 Support 

Well trained professionals provide not only medical expertise, but along with our volunteers also provide spiritual, and compassionate support to patients and their loved ones.

High Peaks Hospice is a rural, not-for-profit health care corporation, certified and licensed by New York State. Our hospice is composed of a caring team of professionals and volunteers who provide the full range of quality hospice services, primarily in the home, to all terminally ill individuals and their families in portions of Franklin and Hamilton Counties and all of Warren and Essex Counties. Our health care team provides physical care, emotional support and education to the entire family regardless of age, gender, nationality, race, creed, sexual orientation, disability, diagnosis or ability to pay.

 Our History

High Peaks Hospice was conceived in January 1986 by a dedicated group of concerned medical, clergy, and community volunteers, who saw the need for expanded services to the terminally ill throughout the Adirondack Mountains. For two and a half years volunteers alone provided supportive services to area residents from office space donated by the Trudeau Institute.

Early in 1988 our offices moved behind Adirondack Medical Center.  August 29^th of that same year our ability to provide comprehensive medical treatment along with supportive care was realized following certification by State and Federal agencies.  That same year High Peaks Hospice received the prestigious Eleanor Roosevelt Community Service Award by Governor Cuomo for outstanding volunteer service (over 6900 volunteer hours).

Individuals, when faced with imminent death, now had choices as to how and where they would die.  Patients were finally given control.  In the ensuing years High Peaks Hospice has continued to expand and flourish.  The vision of a few in 1986 - to provide dignity, comfort and hope to the terminally ill and their families - has grown into a highly respected and valuable health service organization that provides physical, emotional and bereavement support throughout the Adirondack and Southern Adirondack region. 

A vision and twenty one years later, High Peaks Hospice has three offices that cover a vast service area .  The organization employs close to 50 employees and the volunteers – who started it all and continue to be the heart and soul of the organization– number well over 250!

Click here to view our:

Statement on Physician Assisted Suicide

For more information on Hospice, visit the National Hospice and Palliative Care website

www.nhpco.org