Hospice of Humboldt Palliative Care on Redwood News with Karen Ayers - Clinical Director
- May 20
- 2 min read
Updated: May 21
This story originally appeared on RedwoodNews.TV
We’re here with Karen Ayres, nurse practitioner with Hospice of Humboldt, talking about home-based palliative care and the growing need for these services here in our community.
Hospice of Humboldt started this program in 2022.
“Yeah, we just met our four-year anniversary,” said Ayres. “And we started that program because we recognized in the community people living with serious illness and really kind of struggling through that journey.
“And palliative care aims to accompany people through their journey, offer them relief from the stress of having a serious illness and, you know, manage their symptoms, help them to feel better.”
Ayres said home-based palliative care is one of the services offered through Hospice of Humboldt, but it is distinct from hospice care.
“So we started this service called home-based palliative care,” she said. “While we are part of Hospice of Humboldt, we are one of the services they offer. We’re not hospice care, we’re palliative care.
“And palliative care is kind of addressing, you could say, upstream from hospice, where we know someone has a serious illness. But palliative care is designed to sort of accompany them through that illness, walk right alongside with them and help to address symptoms that they have, stress, that kind of thing.
“And say having a serious illness is like having a full-time job, and you don’t feel good at the same time. So helping to make that easier for people is really your hope.”
People can get connected to the program by reaching out directly or through a referral from their health care provider.
“If you’re interested, you can always give us a call,” Ayres said. “You could talk with your health care provider about that, your nurse practitioner or your physician, perhaps, and ask for a referral from them.
“Sometimes a referral might be suggested to a person. And then also, people can just call us directly if they know that’s something that might be helpful for them.”
Ayres said the need for these services is growing locally.
“Oh my gosh, yes,” she said. “So we started out very small, you know, we were really trying to get the word out and get people to join in. Now we have trouble keeping up. And we know that there are so many people out there who would benefit from these services.
“And so we are really trying to grow our program.”
For more information, people can contact Hospice of Humboldt by phone or online.
“You can call our phone number, which is (707) 445-8443, or you can check it out at hospiceofhumboldt.org,” Ayres said. “You can just call and ask questions. We’d be happy to give you information for sure.”
Visit hospiceofhumboldt.org to find a tab on the homepage where you can support the expansion of the home-based palliative care services program.
