VANCOUVER, Wash., July 15, 2015 –
In the 2015 – 2017 State Capital Budget, Community Home Health & Hospice will receive $1 million to build a grief support center in Salmon Creek. The state funding is through the Department of Commerce’s Building Communities Fund Program. The Salmon Creek project will include a grief center, community conference center, outdoor memorial garden, and office space for Community’s clinical staff. Community will receive the state funding when the project’s funding goal is reached. This funding recognition will help Community leverage and raise additional financial support from foundations, organizations and individuals.
The grief center facility is the second of Community’s 2-phase project on its Salmon Creek site. The first phase is the newly-opened 10-bed hospice care center which was built to meet the needs of Clark County’s growing elderly population. Nestled in a wooded setting bordered by wetlands, the hospice facility provides intense short-term care for patients whose pain and other symptoms can’t be controlled at home. Respite care is also available when a hospice patient’s caregiver needs a break.
Phase 2 includes future plans to construct a second 21,000-square foot building on the Salmon Creek property for the grief center project. Free community grief support will be available to anyone who has experienced a loss whether from natural death, accident, suicide, violence, natural disaster or military service. The grief center will have dedicated areas for children, teens and adults as well as a memory cave and volcano room. The outdoor memorial garden will be free to the public and include beautiful plantings, water features and areas for reflection, public events and individual memorials. The community conference center will be available for public use for community meetings and will hold free public forums on end-of-life planning and caregiver training and support.
The Southwest Washington delegation spearheaded this project through the legislature, especially 17th & 49th district legislators including Representatives Paul Harris and Lynda Wilson and Senator Don Benton from the 17th ; and Representatives Sharon Wylie and Jim Moeller and Senator Annette Cleveland from the 49th.
Community Home Health & Hospice was founded in Cowlitz County in 1977 where it operates a 12-bed hospice care center. Adjacent to the care center is the James Avery Grief Center and Ken Henderson Memorial Garden.
