The founder of Serenity House tries to bring dignity to dying
AS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR of the non profit Carolina Comfort Coalition, Cheryl Pletcher created and runs an organization which helps terminally ill people who want to live their last days in a home environment. Pletcher has been involved with hospice nursing for about 30 years—first in upstate New York, then here in the Charlotte area since 2001. She’s worked in a variety of health care settings, including hospitals, nursing homes, and home hospice care.
She was in New York when she became aware of the concept of a comfort care home, which bridges the gap for families that find themselves in the difficult spot where their loved one needs more care than they can provide, but does not need to be in a hospice facility. She was surprised to find out that nothing similar existed in Charlotte. She created the first Serenity House in Mooresville in 2007, and the organization established a second house in Huntersville in 2014.
Everybody admitted to Serenity House is receiving hospice care, which oversees the medication component of their care. Serenity House doesn’t have ventilators, needles, or equipment (other than oxygen). At a hospice facility, patients are in the final stages of dying and in need of intense medical management to handle their pain and/or breathing issues. The residents of Serenity House are at the point where they do not want any further medical interventions, but they are not in an acute situation where they would need to be inpatient. They can stay here for up to three months. It is their desire to spend their remaining time in a loving, caring, home-like environment.
Pletcher sat down with Charlotte magazine and talked about the role Serenity House plays in the region, and what she’s learned from patients and families along the way. Here she is, in her own words (edited for clarity and space).
この記事は Charlotte Magazine の July 2017 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です ? サインイン
この記事は Charlotte Magazine の July 2017 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
すでに購読者です? サインイン
‘This Is How We're Going to Make Your Child Better'
Pediatric neurosurgery is technically and emotionally complex—and traditionally dominated by men. As Novant’s first female pediatric neurosurgeon, Dr. Erin Kiehna Richardson has had to learn the intricacies of a demanding field and battle sexism along the way
The Dumbledore of CMC
A surgery resident wrote a series of children’s books and created a special kind of medical magic
LGBTQ HB2+5
Five years after the furor of House Bill 2, the LGBTQ community—in Charlotte, in North Carolina, and across much of the nation—fights attacks on new fronts
Oh, Snap!
New ‘selfie museum’ in Concord celebrates the 1990s
ALLISON LATOS
The WSOC anchor on her hard trek from one episode of loss and grief to another—and the meaning of resilience
GOOD HEALTH
For years, Charlotte has been one of the largest American cities that lacked a four-year medical school. The health care professionals who finally made it happen overcame a series of setbacks, false starts, and failures, and they plan to use their clean slate to create a new kind of community asset
Summer Partee
From woodwork to retail, the kindergarten teacher-turned-designer has learned how to do it herself
Uptown or Downtown?
Archives illuminate how long we’ve argued over the perennial question
NOW OPEN NOVEL ITALIAN
Paul Verica brings a simpler version of the city’s hottest food trend to NoDa
TOP DOCTORS 2021
The annual list you can't without
