OUR IMPACT
Compassionate and loving end-of-life care for those in need
Welcome Home of Chattanooga opened in 2015 and is one of only two hospice homes in the state of Tennessee. When a person has no home, no family members to take them in, and no access to nursing home care, it is likely that they have nowhere to go to receive end-of-life hospice care. Welcome Home is stepping in to fill this gap. Creating a safe home with access to meals, hospice professionals, and love through family-style care is how Welcome Home of Chattanooga makes our mission a reality for many in the community who otherwise have nowhere to go to receive the care they need during a very difficult time.
We offer the opportunity for love, grace, and forgiveness at Welcome Home.
Since 2016, we have cared for more than 76 individuals
We believe that everyone in the world wants to be happy and free from suffering. At Welcome Home of Chattanooga, we do not simply provide shelter, access to healthcare and basic needs. We also work to meet the emotional needs of our residents. Through providing trauma-informed social work services, our team talks with each resident regularly about what is important to them, what goals they have, and makes connections to resources outside of Welcome Home if they qualify. We facilitate reconciliation with family and friends when needed and appropriate. Welcome Home embraces a holistic approach to serve each person with compassion and kindness. In doing so, we build relationships and our residents become some of our best teachers. We learn from them along the way as we all learn to walk each other home.
Shelter equals healthcare
At Welcome Home, we recognize that shelter equals healthcare. During our first two years of operation, we began to realize that some of our residents experience unexpected improvements in health once they come to Welcome Home and receive adequate shelter, healthcare, nutrition, and love. Due to this dynamic, we intensified our social work services to include planning for permanent housing or nursing home placements should a resident’s health improve and they are released from hospice care. We partnered with the Chattanooga Housing Authority to become a Housing First agency. Providing these resources prevents people from becoming homeless again. Once residents move on to permanent housing, we follow them and their progress for at least one year so that we can continue to support them with social work services. It's important to all of us that we continue our journey together.
What's next?
In March 2021, Welcome Home launched a six-month pilot program to serve cancer patients who need medical respite care and social work services. During this pilot, we will assess how the needs of our medical respite residents may differ from the needs of our hospice residents, and plan accordingly.
While our work is important and makes a difference to those we serve, we often have a waiting list for space at Welcome Home. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated homelessness in our region, as shown by recent data from the Chattanooga Homeless Coalition, which indicated a more than 80% increase in unsheltered individuals, from 201 in early 2020 to 364 in early 2021, based on their annual point-in-time count.
To meet this need, we recently purchased a 4.5 acre parcel of beautifully wooded property as a sanctuary for future residents. We could use your help as we serve more people in the years to come.