Series: The Hospice Path

(08/30/10) Since the 1960s, the hospice movement has been working to give Americans more options and more choices when they reach the end of their lives.

The idea is that even after we know we're dying, we can make decisions that shape the quality of our remaining time.

High Peaks Hospice and Palliative Care serves patients across a huge swath of the North Country, from Warren County all the way to St. Lawrence County.

Brian Mann has been working with the organization to profile one family that has entered the program, the Gallaghers in Saranac Lake.

In the weeks ahead, Brian's series will follow the Gallagher family, telling the story of their lives and their work with hospice. more

(09/06/10) Last week, we began a new on-going series called the Hospice Path.

North Country Public Radio is looking in-depth at the way hospice programs across the region are changing people's lives at a time when they're forced to confront the certainty of death.

We're telling that story in part by spending time with the Gallagher family in Saranac Lake.

Bill Gallagher is 87 years old and his lungs are slowly failing.

But with the help of High Peaks Hospice, he's been able to stay at home with his wife Tomi.

In order to better describe their experience, our reporter Brian Mann decided to first spend some time asking about Bill's long life before he got sick. more

(09/07/10) North Country Public Radio has begun an on-going series looking at the ways that hospice programs can help when someone is approaching the end of their life.

It turns out a social worker here in New York was one of the pioneers of hospice and end-of-life care. Zelda Foster passed away in 2006.

At that time, reporter Gregory Warner profiled a woman who spent forty years advocating for people's right to die with dignity.

(09/20/10) When a patient enters a hospice program at the end of their life, a lot of the focus is on their experience, their choices, and their preparations for death.

As part of our on-going series, called the Hospice Path, we've been profiling Bill Gallagher.

He began working with High Peaks Hospice after doctors told him that his lungs were weakening and couldn't be treated.

This morning, Brian Mann shifts the focus to Tomi Gallagher, Bill's wife. They've been married and caring for each other for nearly seven decades.

Tomi Gallagher says hospice is now offering her important help, while she and her husband navigate this difficult transition. more

(10/11/10) Over the last couple of months, we've been airing an occasional series about hospice care in the North Country.

Hospice programs provide end-of-life care, everything from pain management to help with family crises.

We've been profiling one couple, Bill and Tommi Gallagher, who live in Saranac Lake and are taking part in hospice as Bill's health declines.

This morning, Brian Mann talks with Shawn Galbreath, the new director of High Peaks Hospice.

Galbreath took over the program this summer.

She says one of hospice's main goals is helping families have am ore realistic conversation about what happens at the end of life.

(10/18/10) This morning we continue our on-going series called the Hospice Path. North Country Public Radio is looking in-depth at the way hospice and palliative care programs can help people at the end of their lives.

We've been profiling Bill Gallagher in Saranac Lake. He's 87 years old and his lungs are slowly failing. With the support of his wife Tomi, he's been able to remain at home with his family. Despite those successes, Bill has struggled at times with depression, loneliness and boredom.

As Brian Mann reports, hospice experts say those experiences are common for hospice patients nearing the end of their lives. more

(10/25/10) The last few months, we've been airing a special new series called the Hospice Path.

We've been profiling one family, the Gallaghers in Saranac Lake, who are working with the hospice program as Bill Gallagher nears the end of his life.
Bill suffers from a degenerative lung condition and doctors say he has less than a year to live.

This morning, Brian Mann looks at the other side of the relationship, talking with the hospice workers who help people across the North Country at the end of their lives.

(11/22/10) Most of us hate to talk or think about death. It may be the last taboo subject in America. But beginning last spring, Brian Mann asked one North Country family to do just that.

As part of a series called The Hospice Path, Brian documented the lives of Bill and Tommie Gallagher. Bill joined the High Peaks Hospice program after he was diagnosed with an untreatable lung ailment. He died last Monday at his home in Saranac Lake, surrounded by family and helped in his final hours by a hospice nurse.

But it turns out that Bill's death isn't the final step in the hospice process. As Brian learned, the program's nurses and counselors will now work with his family as they begin to grieve and say good-bye. more