A Good Choice When You Need Support
on the Journey of Aging or Serious Illness

A Palliative Care Program
in collaboration with the North Shore Health Care Foundation,
Cook County North Shore Hospital, Sawtooth Mountain Clinic
and other community service organizations.

“We envision healthcare capable of promising dignity, comfort, companionship, and spiritual support to patients and families facing advanced illness or at the end of life, bringing together all of the resources that community, friends, and family have to share.” 

Click Here for the Care Partners Brochure

This program is funded by generous donations from the community, the North Shore Health Care Foundation, the Cook County Community Fund, Operation Round-up, Minnesota Power, the Stratis Health Rural Palliative Care Initiative and the Lloyd K. Johnson Foundation and through a Community Service/Community Services Development Grant from the Minnesota Department of Human Services.


About Care Partners

After years of community work to build an end-of-life care program for Cook County, Care Partners was established in 2010 as a collaborative of the Cook County North Shore Hospital, North Shore Health Care Foundation and the Sawtooth Mountain Clinic. Care Partners provides comfort care (palliative care) for those with advanced illness as well as those at end of life.

Care Partner’s RN, Jeannette Lindgren has been hired through the hospital to meet with clients with advanced illness and their caregivers. She coordinates support for a whole range of concerns they might face. Examples include medical concerns, managing uncomfortable symptoms, health care planning, the practical issues of staying in the home—even emotional, social or spiritual issues. Care Partners’ goal is to support clients in living the best quality of life possible according to their goals.

To provide this range of support in our rural setting, Care Partners uses a community approach. The Care Partners Nurse works closely with the client’s physician and helps coordinate with other community resources such as those provided by the Cook County Health & Human Services. Local clergy work with the Care Partners team to provide spiritual support and understanding. Care Partners volunteers can provide excellent support just by visiting the client. The client may want to talk or get help writing letters or be read to, or they may just want someone to be there so they are not alone.

Care Partners volunteers continue to provide companionship services to individuals in the hospital and Care Center. Currently, Care Partners is piloting their services in the home to selected clients. More information will be available this spring and summer, when they are ready to accept more referrals.

	LIGHT UP A LIFE 2011 Thanks to all who made the 3rd Annual “Light up a Life” Event a wonderful celebration! Rev. Kris Garry provided some lovely reflection, and music from Bump and Barbara Jean enriched us all. Thanks for all of the donations to help Care Partners fund palliative care and  end-of-life services in Cook County. A list of the names of those remembered can be found at the clinic.

 

Care Partners Volunteer Training!

Are you interested in sharing the gift of your presence? Care Partners Volunteers provide companionship in the client’s home, at the Care Center, or the Hospital. Volunteers provide a compassionate presence at end-of-life, on-going friendly visits, phone check-ins, or caregiver respite.

Volunteer trainings consist of four evenings of training in palliative care, caregiving, end-of-life issues, psycho-social and spiritual dynamics and procedures. They are offered once or twice a year. Contact Kay Grindland at 387-3788 for more information.

Care Partners of Cook County Receives Major Grant

As Care Partners is weaving this web of support for clients with advanced illness, our own funding support is coming together. This fall, Care Partners received a substantial grant through the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) Community Service/Community Services Development Grants (CS/SD). We were one of twelve programs funded by the state. Those funds were matched dollar for dollar by local donations and in-kind contributions from Care Partner collaborators and volunteers. CS/SD Grants provide seed money to community organizations to help rebalance Minnesota’s long-term care support service delivery system and increase its ability to help people age 65 and older stay in their own homes and communities. The Stratis Health Rural Palliative Care Initiative Grant which Care Partners also received continues to provide valuable technical assistance with building a community team and starting a rural palliative care program.

“We’re very excited,” says Kay Grindland, Care Partners Program Director. “The DHS grant gives us funding to thoroughly develop the services we want to provide in the home, hospital and care center. But I am just as pleased about the $1,370 we raised through the Light Up a Life event, or other donations we’ve received from local organizations and individuals. This is the kind of community funding that will sustain us over the long haul, when the Community Service and Community Services Development Grant is completed.”