Healing Heart Hospitality House

A Home Away from Home for caregivers that runs exclusively upon donations and the kindness of others: https://gofund.me/4e9ac9fc Over the past several years we have become increasingly aware of the lack of housing for caregivers (defined for this project as family members and friends) of hospitalized patients in Central Massachusetts. This is especially apparent in the greater Worcester area. Worcester hospitals and other health care facilities offer care to over 63,000 admissions annually. Of those, a significant number of them are hospitalized for overnight stays that range from one night to several nights or even months. A proportion of these patients are from outlying areas in the Central Massachusetts region as are their caregivers. Due to the nature and extent of some hospitalized patient’s illness, caregivers are required to stay within close proximity of the hospital. They may be required to stay overnight, or often, a week or more at a time. In those instances, they must find accommodations that are accessible and affordable. For some, this adds to their stress as they may not be able to find accommodations that they can afford. Consequently, they must trek back-and-forth from home to the hospital. This necessitates the expense of transportation, creates fatigue, increases stress and takes away from energy and care that they would be able to provide if they were free from these burdens. Still others may find it difficult to cover housing and travel costs, thus they may not be able to provide care and nurturing to their loved one when it is most needed. A hospitality house for these caregivers will significantly decrease these burdens. We have conducted an informal assessment of housing availability for caregivers of hospitalized patients in Worcester hospitals. Our assessment revealed that there are only one hospitality house in Worcester – Sherry’s House. Healing Heart Hospitality House accommodates all caregivers regardless of the illness or injury.