Jon Hospice
Lusaka, Zambia
Jon Hospice was founded to support people dying from AIDS, but now provides care and treatment for HIV/AIDS patients, focusing on children, both in their homes and at a twenty-six bed hospice. When it opened in 1999, Jon Hospice was originally funded by a Dutch national, Pola van der Donck, whose brother had died of AIDS. Currently, the hospice depends on donations from local business communities, churches, and international donors. The hospice is located in urban Lusaka in the Kamwala area, a 10-minute drive from the Lusaka town center. It serves the catchment areas of Chilenje, Kabwata, Missisi, Chawama, and Kanyama.
In addition to the inpatient hospice, Jon Hospice operates a mobile hospice service to address the day-to-day needs of patients in the community, primarily children, and a day care center for children. The hospice also carries out voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) for HIV.
Partnership with POL
In Lusaka, Jon Hospice is the organization with the strongest orientation toward children. The Power of Love Foundation partnership with Jon Hospice offers us the opportunity to learn about hospice treatment and HIV/AIDS community outreach for children. In funding Jon Hospice’s programs for children, Power of Love Foundation has gained tremendous insights that steer its own work with children in other parts of Lusaka.
Programs
Hospice
The hospice takes a holistic approach to palliative care for AIDS patients, including psychosocial and spiritual counseling, voluntary counseling and testing (VCT), three meals a day, TB treatment as needed, and personal supplies such as bedding, soap, vaseline, tissues, towel, etc. The hospice also refers patients for specialized treatment and examinations, including scanning, X-ray, TB testing, CD4 count, and anti-retroviral treatment (ART). Patients come to the hospice directly and are also referred through the home-based care program.
Community Home-based Care (HBC)
The HBC program at Jon Hospice is a mobile hospice program that works closely with other community home-based care programs. The multidisciplinary team travels twice weekly into the surrounding area. The caregivers on the team are community members trained in palliative care through workshops. The caregivers provide basic treatment to patients, including bathing, feeding, and administering medication. A nurse based at the hospice also visits the community several times a week, identifying new patients and providing follow-up care. Medications for patients are supplied through the government clinics as well as the hospice.
Pediatric Day Care Program
Jon Hospice Day Care provides complete care and support children living with HIV/AIDS. The program provides free medical care to over 200 children, and provides day care services to 40 of the children who are most in need. Children in the day care program receive medical care, nutritional care through three meals a day, education, recreation, and counseling. The children are registered in the nearby communities through the HBC projects because their parents are very sick and are often patients of Jon Hospice or the HBC program. When the children reach school age, their guardians are encouraged to have them enrolled in regular school. The Day Care program also offers a pediatric antiretroviral program directed by Dr. Tim Meade, an American doctor. Since the beginning of the program in February 2005, nearly half the children in the day program have started anti-retroviral drug therapy.The program utilizes pillboxes to teach the children how to take the medication themselves, so that when they leave the day program they can continue the drug therapy properly.