Sarah House is a beautiful eight-bedroom hospice care home for low-income individuals, located in Santa Barbara, California. We provide a home and holistic hospice care to those facing the end of life. We also provide care to those living with AIDS, whether end of life care or simply a home for regaining health.
Since the height of the AIDS crisis we have cared for over 250 individuals living with AIDS, providing a home, medical care and often end of life care. Beginning January 1, 2005, we expanded our services to include holistic hospice care for the dying poor who are not HIV positive. Because we are licensed under the California Department of Social Services rather than the Department of Health, we are able to offer a cost effective, unique model of care.
We integrate high-quality medical care into a warm, home-like environment. We attempt to satisfy each individual’s physical, spiritual, and emotional needs to the best of our ability. Sometimes this means simply to offer the security of another persons “real presence” on a sleepless night. Often it means welcoming our residents’ entire family for meals around our dining room table. Typically, it means providing precisely controlled pain management. Sometimes it means reuniting estranged family members for the final goodbye. Whatever it is, we do it with the love we would share with members of our own family. By these small actions, we create the space at Sarah House for miracles to occur.
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Our Unique "Social Model"
According to the National Palliative Care Organization, Sarah House is the only social model hospice residence in the nation. A social model hospice is distinct from the traditional “medical model” due to 4 key components:
1. A homelike environment rather than an institutional or “clinical” atmosphere
2. No strict division of labor amongst staff, resulting in a stronger sense of extended family
3. A cost-effective approach resulting in lower bed day costs
4. Holistic care giving for the residents and their loved ones, which addresses the physical, social, psychological, and spiritual aspects of pain and dying.
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Sarah House Sarah House provides end-of-life care to the dying poor and 24-hour residential care to the low income with HIV/AIDS. At Sarah House, we attempt to replicate the atmosphere and care that one would receive in the comforts of one’s own home. Residents have their own room and are able to furnish it with their own belongings. Each of our 8 bedrooms opens up to a patio or lush garden. It has a lovely living room, a spacious kitchen and dining room, as well as a beautiful and serene garden. We offer residents 24-hour care, private bedrooms in a shared living environment, nutritious meals, and assistance with adhering to a difficult medication regime in an atmosphere of unconditional love and support. The majority of our residents come from a background of real poverty, often homeless, with limited education and access to healthcare.
Hospice Care at Sarah House
Sarah House is a “social model” hospice rather than a standard “medical model”. Most facilities attempt to integrate both social and medical components in their care; what makes us unique is our angle of approach. We provide medical care in a social environment, rather than social care in a medical environment. An example of this distinction would be the difference between a doctor visiting you in your home and your family visiting you in the hospital. Our approach is groundbreaking in hospice care, a model that until now was only alive in the pages of progressive hospice books and the hopeful minds of many hospice caregivers.
We designed Sarah House to be the next best thing to home. We welcome residents as friends and give them unconditional love as family. Our volunteers cook their favorite foods. Their own friends and relatives join them for countless meals at our dining room table. When they want a favorite movie, we put them in the van and drive to the video store. When we have summer barbeques, the residents who are able decorate cupcakes and welcome the guests. Nothing about this has a clinical look, although complicated medical procedures are followed precisely. What this does look like is spending one’s last days with home and family.
We integrate high-quality medical care into this environment. We provide 24-hour Certified Nurse Assistant (CNA) care, Registered Nurse case management, and each patient is assigned a visiting Registered Nurse from the local Medicare certified hospice agency. This same agency, Visiting Nurse Association, also provides formal grief counseling and support to residents and their families. We have a doctor who visits residents in the comfort of their own rooms.
