Louisiana-Mississippi Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (LMHPCO)

"Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around." — Leo Buscaglia


In 2020, KABF gave another grant to the compassionate nonprofit Louisiana-Mississippi Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (LMHPCO), which provides end-of-life support to incarcerated people in prisons in Louisiana and parts of Mississippi. LMHPCO was introduced to us in 2014 by Kelly’s brother, KABF board member David Brown Steward.
 
Executive director Jamey Boudreaux sent us a recent update:
 
"Up until late March, we were doing monthly continuing education with inmate hospice volunteers and staffers at Angola, Hunt, Dixon facilities in Louisiana and Parchman in Mississippi. Inmates at LCIW (the women’s prison in Louisiana) were moved to a different facility due to flooding that occurred at the end of 2019, and we were waiting for them to settle into this “new” facility to resume our program just as the pandemic hit Louisiana. When the pandemic hit LA & MS all visitors, including us, were locked out. We remain in contact with staff at each facility and provide outside assistance and consultative services as requested but our activities are limited to telephone and conference calls. We explored Zoom options, but technology & security issues have prevented us from being as creative with our educational and advocacy effort for inmate care as we have been for our programs “in the free world.”
 
Bordeaux told us of a meeting planned in January 2021 with Burl Cain, the former warden at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola. In June of 2020, Caine became Commissioner of the Mississippi Department of Corrections. Bordeaux had told us of his work with Cain in the past and the development of the prison hospice system in Angola.

Warden Cain found that the hospice program was largely responsible for the positive changes at what used to be the bloodiest prison in the United States. Hospice has not only changed the relationships between prisoners, but also the relationships between guards and prisoners. Cain remarked that for months fights and assaults between inmates stopped.
 
Bordeaux said that during his upcoming meeting with Cain they would discuss overhauling end-of-life and palliative care in Mississippi’s private and public correctional facilities. Bordeaux is hoping they can have the same impact in Mississippi that they had in Louisiana with Cain’s leadership.
 
KABF is happy to continue supporting the prison hospice scholarship program, which provides opportunities for correctional officers and staff to attend LMHPCO’s training and educational programs.
 
Boudreaux stated that with the help of KABF:
 
"We hope to offer those same scholarships in 2021 as vaccines are distributed and healthcare professionals find the confidence to meet face to face again. We will be back in the prisons as soon as this lockdown is ended, and inmate hospice volunteers are able to meet again. We appreciate the partnership that David started with LMHPCO in 2014."

Click here to learn more about LMHPCO.