Gulfside Healthcare Services Supports Local Families When They Need It Most
By: Julie Kirchner
Founded in 1988, Gulfside Healthcare Services (Gulfside) is a community-based, nonprofit healthcare organization providing hospice, non-hospice palliative care, and skilled home health care throughout Pasco County and the Tampa Bay area of Florida.
Powerhouse was recently blessed with an opportunity to partner with Gulfside to support business growth and help expand Gulfside’s capacity for local community impact. When Powerhouse President Jessica Bertsch first learned about the nonprofit’s work and mission, she knew she had to get involved with this amazing organization and its people.
Gulfside President and CEO Linda Ward speaks passionately about the team of nearly 400 staff and over 200 volunteers at Gulfside. She shares, “Our people are what make this organization magical. We can share story after story of the compelling effects that every single person makes on patients and families.”
It’s difficult for any of us to think about and prepare for end-of-life options, but every family faces these decisions at one time or another. Gulfside’s team provides the much-needed support to help individuals and their families navigate this incredibly challenging time.
As a nonprofit organization, Gulfside provides hospice care services to all patients—regardless of their ability to pay. These patients include uninsured individuals who would otherwise be unable to afford end-of-life care. If a patient does not have a payer source, Gulfside will cover the cost of their care.
In addition to ensuring all individuals in their community have access to needed healthcare services, Gulfside gives back to its local community in two major ways: its unique hospice care approach and its family bereavement support program.
Caring for the Whole Patient Through a Team Approach
Gulfside’s hospice care addresses the physical, emotional, social, and spiritual needs of patients who are facing an end-of-life illness as well as the wide variety of needs of their families during this difficult time.
Director of Philanthropy Carla Armstrong says that patients and families love the Gulfside experience and the unique team approach they offer. She shares, “The approach that Gulfside Hospice takes is the kind of care that we all wish we received from a doctor—beyond just the clinical care perspective. We look at the entire patient—the mental, the spiritual, and the emotional. This is what makes Gulfside Hospice truly unique: your care is coordinated across an entire interdisciplinary team, and it’s not just medical care.”
At Gulfside, an entire team—consisting of a doctor, an APRN, an RN, LPNs, CNAs, and a social worker—cares for each patient. This team not only cares for the patient, but they also support the entire family, because hospice is a journey the whole family goes on. The social worker helps the family address social support needs that arise when a tragedy comes and navigates them through that process. Gulfside chaplains offer nondenominational spiritual support, helping to guide patients through their end-of-life chapter. A hospice approach with an interdisciplinary team like this provides a truly holistic approach to patient care.
Meeting Local Families’ Needs for Grief and Bereavement Support
Gulfside’s support extends beyond hospice patients and their family members and into the greater community. Under the leadership of Director of Caregiver Services Charlie Lowry, the Gulfside Family Bereavement Program is guided by the goal of “Empowering grieving children and their family to confront their pain and rebuild their lives as they embark on their journey through grief.”
The Family Bereavement Program is a free, multiethnic, nondenominational program providing services including grief support groups, bereavement workshops, educational programs, and individual and family counseling to residents from ages 5 to 100+ at no cost to the participants. These services are available to anyone in the Pasco County community who has experienced any form of loss, such as the death of a loved one, the loss of a job, the loss of a pet, and/or the loss of a home.
In 2021, Gulfside’s Family Bereavement Program served over 5,700 individuals.
Learn how Gulfside cares for patients and families, regardless of their ability to pay.
Gulfside has served over 20,000 hospice patients in its 33-year history, and today, on any given day, they serve over 1,000 patients through three core services: hospice care, non-hospice palliative care, and skilled home health nursing and rehabilitation care.
To learn more about Gulfside’s healthcare and family bereavement support services, or to get involved as a volunteer, please visit Gulfside’s website, gulfside.org. Local community members can also shop at any of the five Gulfside Hospice Thrift Shoppe locations in Pasco County, where all net proceeds benefit Gulfside hospice patients.
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