A half-dozen pairs of golden scissors cut a bright red ribbon to smithereens as onlookers cheered. More than 150 people gathered to dedicate the brand-new Hope Hospice Center in west Missoula on Tuesday.
The facility offers 12 private rooms and all-day care to residents and their families navigating the end of life. Two nonprofits — Partners Hope Foundation and Partners in Home Care — joined forces to build the center. Board member and chaplain Dan Dixon dedicated the facility.
“It doesn’t matter where in the course of life we find ourselves,” Dixon said. “Human creatures always have room for hope, even at the end of life.”
The building’s tall windows and ceilings let in heaps of natural light. It feels homey — and Partners Hope Foundation director Amanda Yeoman Melro said that’s intentional.
It will be the second inpatient hospice center in the state, and the first in western Montana. The state has one of the oldest populations in the nation, according to health research nonprofit KFF. That means more families could be seeking out this care as Montanans age.
Most families right now have to find in-home hospice care or rely on hospitals. Both can be burdensome, said Yeoman Melro.
“It can be very taxing, and so family can come here and just be family,” Yeoman Melro said. “They don’t have to be caregivers in the in-between.”
More than 700 donors contributed $15 million to build and sustain Hope Hospice Center.
The center is now setting its sights on raising another half-million dollars to help residents in need afford care. Organizers expect the facility to serve as many as 3,000 patients in its first five years.
