PROGRESS: Sioux City's first hospice house in the works

Simply put, it's a hospice facility designed solely for patients facing the end of their lives. Rather than have hospice care in their homes or go to a nursing home or assisted living center, patients can live in a supervised, comfortable setting that resembles their home. It's another option for families for whom existing options might not be practical.

"It's just another option for people if for whatever reason their house doesn't work," said Macfarlane, board president of the Mitchell House, named for her late father, Ray Mitchell Jr.

Construction is planned to begin in late spring at the 2.5-acre site near Military Road and Ross Streets. Once the site of an orphanage, the currently vacant land was donated by the Diocese of Sioux City to the nonprofit Mitchell House group.

Macfarlane said plans for the house began nearly two years ago. Her mother and Mitchell's widow, Margo Mitchell-Wilcox, decided Sioux City should have a hospice house and provided a large donation to get the ball rolling. Macfarlane said the Mitchell House is a sign of her family's gratitude to Sioux City.

"My mother thought this was a way to thank the area for being such a wonderful place to live," she said.

By October, the group had raised $1.5 million of its $4.5 million goal to fund construction and provide an endowment.

Macfarlane said in February that fundraising was progressing and potential donors are receptive to the idea.

"I feel it's going well and we're getting the word out and educating people about what a hospice house is," she said. "They're really excited about it and think it will be a great asset to the community."

Mitchell House will have room for six hospice residents age 18 or older to live in a home-like environment. Each patient room will have space for a spouse and family to stay, and families can use the building's kitchen to cook food for loved ones and hospice patients. Each patient's room, Macfarlane said, could sleep five people.

"Most of these people haven't slept alone, when they're older, they've been married for 50-plus years, they haven't slept alone, they don't want to," Macfarlane told the Journal in October. "They can stay with the resident, or if family members come in from out of town, they'll have a pull-out couch that sleeps two." 

There will be a play room for children, a family room and a large outdoor patio. Pets would be allowed to visit. A two-member staff will monitor and tend to patients, who will also be cared for by the caregivers they already had.

Six resident rooms is a starting point for the house. If demand grows, the facility could be enlarged. 

"It is expandable, if things get busy," Dr. Dale R. Holdiman, one of the Mitchell House directors, told the Journal in October. "You could build onto it if you wanted to."

Most hospice patients in Sioux City are either at home or in a nursing home or assisted living facility. For some families, neither option works well -- some homes are unsuitable for hospice care, some hospice patients' needs are complicated, some have caregivers who are frail or unwell themselves, and some simply do not want to die in their own home or a nursing facility. 

"If you have a young family, and you don't want to go a nursing home ... but you don't want to be in your house because you have small children, this is just another option for a place to go," Macfarlane said. "You'd still have that home-feel environment."

For more information, visit the Mitchell House website at www.mitchellhospicehouse.org or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/MitchellHospiceHouse/.