The Washington Home & Community Hospices Transitions to Private Foundation, Makes Inaugural Donations in Excess of $3.5M

Funds Provide Vital Local Support for At-Risk DC Area Seniors & the Critically Ill

WASHINGTON, DC (October 1, 2020) – For decades, The Washington Home & Community Hospices operated the only in-patient hospice facility in Washington, DC, housed in a wing of its nursing home in upper Northwest.

Recently the organization closed that facility and transitioned to a charitable foundation named The Washington Home, with a mission to fund initiatives that support the elderly and those in need of end-of-life care.

The Washington Home is proud to announce its recent inaugural donations in excess of $3.5M to DC-area community nonprofit organizations serving at-risk seniors and the critically ill.

 

New Senior Center in DC’s Ward 8: $1M

As part of its transition from hands-on care to impactful grant-making, The Washington Home recently gave $1M to Iona Senior Services (IONA).

The financial gift supported construction of IONA’s new senior center in Ward 8 in Southeast, the opening of which has been delayed due to Covid-19. The facility is named IONA – The Washington Home Center.

The current plan is to open within the next month for programs initially serving a small number of seniors, along with remote support services for others, and then to slowly increase in-person programs when safe to do so.

Since 1975, IONA has provided adult daycare and an array of services to seniors in its upper Northwest community. Its expansion to this new facility in Southeast will give seniors in that area access to much-needed adult daycare and other community-based programs and services.

“We are pleased to support IONA in their expansion to an area of the City that has many seniors who will benefit from the programs that Iona has developed and executed so well for many years in its original community,” said Phyllis Dillinger, The Washington Home CEO/CFO. “We feel confident that IONA will make an immediate positive impact in Ward 8.”

 

New In-Patient Hospice Wing – Capital Caring/Sibley Memorial Hospital: $2M

The Washington Home has agreed to give $2M to Capital Caring Health to establish a new in-patient hospice care unit on the campus of Sibley Memorial Hospital.

The new care unit, to be named The Washington Home, will be a 10-bed inpatient hospice facility that will provide 24-hour medical and nursing support in a home-like environment for up to 200 patients and their families yearly.

It will serve area residents who who require intensive care beyond home hospice such as: respite stay for caregiver relief, aggressive symptom management, or a safe place during their final days.

The Washington Home at Sibley will be the District’s second inpatient hospice facility available to over 1,300 hospice patients cared for annually. It is scheduled to open in mid-2021.

“For decades, The Washington Home had the only in-patient hospice facility in the City, housed in a wing of our nursing home in upper Northwest. With that facility’s closure, we are pleased to continue our longstanding mission by participating in the establishment of this new facility that will provide the highest level of hospice care,” said Sharon Collins Casey, Board Chair, The Washington Home.

 

COVID-19 Related Grant Fund: $500,000

With our community’s most vulnerable seniors and critically ill residents at increased risk due to COVID-19, The Washington Home’s Board of Directors established a $500,000 emergency fund.

To-date, $425,000 has been distributed to 25 DC-area nonprofit organizations, including 13 neighborhood Villages, eight other community-based organizations and four DC hospitals.

These organizations deliver programs and services that align with The Washington Home’s key focus areas: increasing access to medical care and related services, providing caregiver support, alleviating social isolation, and reducing food insecurity.

This emergency funding is enabling these organizations to respond to issues caused or exacerbated by the pandemic by addressing the needs of local seniors.

Based on data reported by these organizations to The Washington Home, more than 10,000 seniors and their caregivers have been assisted in various ways because of the grants provided by The Washington Home in recent months.

The assistance included over 15,000 meals and food gift cards; over 1,000 check-in calls made to seniors; a Helpline utilized by approximately 4,000 seniors and their caregivers; over 1,400 caregivers provided with relief packages, gift cards and support groups; technology provided to approximately 70 seniors (tablet computers and GrandPads®); Covid-19 tests and pharmacy gift cards; medical equipment/supplies; and coverage of household emergency needs.

The Washington Home Board Chair, Sharon Collins Casey, thanked the foundation’s Board members, saying “Our Board responded quickly and compassionately to the urgent needs that arose almost overnight impacting DC’s elderly residents as well as people with advanced illness who are especially vulnerable during this pandemic.”

Support for Seniors

The DC-area nonprofits that received Covid-19 related emergency funding for immediate community support needs are:

• • DC Villages (13 organizations across the city)
  • East River Family Strengthening Collaborative, Inc. (ERFSC)
  • Home Care Partners
  • Iona Senior Services (IONA)
  • Seabury Resources for Aging
  • Smith Center for Healing & The Arts
  • Terrific, Inc.
  • Unity Health Care
  • World Central Kitchen

“We are grateful for these organizations that support our most at-risk community members. They are the boots-on-the-ground troops that are in the best position to deliver help within the respective communities that they serve,” said Phyllis Dillinger, CEO/CFO of The Washington Home.

Support for the Critically Ill

The four DC-area hospitals that submitted grant proposals to The Washington Home and received Covid-19 related emergency funds are:

• • George Washington University Hospital
  • MedStar Georgetown University Hospital
  • MedStar Washington Hospital Center
  • Sibley Memorial Hospital

“While the needs are ongoing, they are especially intense during this pandemic crisis. The Washington Home is committed to carrying on our 132-year legacy of helping Washington area seniors and people with advanced illness,” said Sharon Collins Casey, Board Chair, The Washington Home.

Additional Funding

The Washington Home redirected purpose-restricted funds of approximately $170,000 to Capital Caring Health to support caregiver relief resources, reduce social isolation of patients, and provide free in-patient care to low-income patients with advanced illness.

In connection with The Washington Home’s transition from a hands-on care provider to a foundation, Capital Caring Health took over its hospice operations in late 2019.

 

The Washington Home 2020 Funding of Initiatives That Support Seniors
and the Critically Ill Across Washington, DC

 

 

 

 

About The Washington Home

The Washington Home is a foundation that provides funding to entities that create and deliver innovative, compassionate, and well-managed programs to improve the quality of life for elderly and/or terminally ill residents in the Washington, DC metropolitan area.

Founded in 1888, The Washington Home, until recently, provided long-term care to residents of its nursing home facility in upper Northwest Washington, DC, hospice care to patients in their own homes, and care in the in-patient hospice wing of the nursing home.

In recent years, the Board of Directors of The Washington Home directed a repositioning of the organization by ceasing hands-on care and consolidating its financial resources to be deployed for maximum impact in accordance with its longstanding mission. Learn more at www.TheWashingtonHome.org.