Hospice
of Hope’s Mountain Pathway
Wins Rose & Sam Stein Award
Hospice of Hope was recently honored at the Ohio Hospice and Palliative Care Organization’s (OHCPO) annual meeting for their Mountain Pathway program. Chaplains David Wirth and Gorman Parrish received the Rose & Sam Stein award for their outstanding work and execution of the annual Mountain Pathway Program.
Mountain Pathway is a program created five years ago to fulfill a need of a family-focused grief program within our communities. For several years, Hospice of Hope had been a part of larger metropolitan grief programs however; they were not addressing the needs of our own service area with specific interest in summer school support.
Mountain Pathway was chosen as a theme to accurately communicate the challenges of grief. “Facing the pain of grief is like climbing a mountain. When we walk and climb together we can make better progress”. A “camp” theme is intertwined throughout the entire day and includes a trail guide’s welcome, campfire songs, and base camp activities. A backpack is given to each participant with specific contents that are symbolic of survival skills / coping mechanisms of grief.
This program, now four years young, is a highly valuable tool to help young people cope with grief & loss. Highly skilled chaplains are there to help guide and educate children to embrace grief and to teach them that death & dying is a very natural stage of life but most importantly to teach them that they are not alone. If you are interested in learning more about the 2007 Mountain Pathway program please call Hospice of Hope at 606-759-4050.