Louisiana-Mississippi Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (LMHPCO)
"My mom always says that everyone is connected. Whatever happens anywhere affects us all, even with people that are never getting out of prison." — David Brown Steward
"My mom always says that everyone is connected. Whatever happens anywhere affects us all, even with people that are never getting out of prison." — David Brown Steward
Kelly’s brother and beloved KABF board member David Brown Steward introduced us to prison hospice in 2014. We made another grant in David’s name in the fall of 2019 and received this beautiful letter from their executive director Jamey Boudreaux:
Dear Debra:
I met David’s mother, Katy Jo, while she was in New Orleans for her friend’s funeral, February 2019, in the midst of Mardi Gras. It was a delight to finally meet her and continue to make the connection that David initiated several years ago.
The most exciting news we have is that the Louisiana Legislature enthusiastically passed HB431 allowing the Angola hospice program to now certify their hospice inmate volunteers as Hospice Aides. The Louisiana Department of Health will create a special registry for those inmate volunteers who win parole and are now eligible for hospice employment in Louisiana. We are simply awaiting the Governor’s signature! Next year’s legislative agenda will include a bill to separately bond out these newly certified Hospice Aides, thus improving their chances of actually being hired by a hospice agency. This is an incredible development that we are very excited about and hope it becomes a model for other states to consider.
Of course, all of this work has been made possible because of the support from donors such as the Kelly Ann Brown Foundation.
Part of KABF’s past support has allowed us to grant scholarships to dozens of correctional officers to attend our annual hospice conference in New Orleans and our hospice trainings that we are doing in all of the five prisons that we work in Louisiana and Mississippi.
I hope that KABF will visit the hospice at Angola, as well as the other 5 correctional facilities we work with to improve end of life care.
Sincerely,
Jamey Boudreaux
Click here to learn more about LMHPCO.
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