Arbor Hospice

I left another review for the Arbor Hospice Residence; this is for the home care staff.
When my mother’s cancer returned, we signed her up with Arbor Hospice, initially for care at home. We had used a different hospice agency before when my stepfather passed away, and while they were fine, we had heard great things about Arbor and decided to go with them. I’m so glad we did.
From the beginning, the staff were compassionate and competent. They were available ²⁴⁄₇ and offered excellent advice as well as hands-​on help when needed. When Mom’s pain (from cancer) wasn’t as well controlled as any of us wanted, they took her to the residence for almost a week until they made her comfortable. After that, she was discharged to a nursing home.
They continued to oversee her care at the nursing home and became very dear to her. In particular, Darla, the social worker, went above and beyond the call of duty to advocate for my mom when she felt her symptoms weren’t being managed well enough. I referred to her as my mom’s champion. We will be everlastingly grateful to her for all she did. Also, Mary, Mom’s nurse, frequently went the extra mile to take care of Mom. They really cared about her, and that was a huge comfort to us during this terribly difficult time.
Eventually we did move her to the Arbor Residence, which is outstanding (see my review under that listing), and she had a peaceful, painless death with family surrounding her. I can’t say enough about how much we appreciated Arbor Hospice; they were truly a Godsend to us this past year. They do the work of angels.

I hope you never need hospice care for anyone in your family. But if you do, Arbor Hospice (with several locations in the Ann Arbor area) does a wonderful job in very tough times.
When it was time to choose home hospice care for my ailing father, we talked to a range of places. Some wanted to immediately pull his life support, some wanted to stop feeding him, some just didn’t seem to know what they were talking about.
But from the time Nate, from Arbor Hospice, walked into the room, his reassuring presence comforted our family, and their willingness to continue with some of the care made our choice of them, easy.
They were at the house when they brought my dad home from the hospital, having arranged for all the equipment to be delivered the night before including everything my dad would need to be comfortable during his last days.
The hospice nurse was available 24/​7, and came to the house a couple of times a week to follow up on the paid nurses aides that we also had. Linda was great with my dad and mom helping them with this end stage of my dad’s life.
When they had to have the tough conversations with us, they didn’t push…merely suggesting what alternate options we had and allowing us to make the final decisions.
And in the end, upon learning of my father’s death, they called all the appropriate parties and comforted my family in the process.
Hospice care has an air of finality about it. But with Arbor Hospice it’s more an air of compassion and caring…and that means everything when it involves a loved ones last days.