The Hospice Care Network (HCN) will be celebrating its 23rd annual Crystal Ball at the Fresh Meadow Country Club in Lake Success on Nov. 12 from 7 p.m. to 12 a.m. During the event, former Manhasset resident Kathleen Malhame will be presented with the George W. Frank Chairman’s Award for her devotion and care to the patients in the HCN.
When you think of hospice you think of the terminally ill. Hospice care is a type of care and philosophy of care that focuses on the palliation of a chronically ill, terminally ill or seriously ill patient’s pain and symptoms, and attending to their emotional and spiritual needs. Quite difficult needs to fulfill. “I do love what I do,” said Malhame.
The goal of Hospice Care Network is to provide in-home hospice care wherever people live. The nurses work with great effort to address the needs of their patients and make sure they live peacefully during the final stages of their lives. The organization has over 600 patients that are attended to by various teams that support the Long Island region. “I couldn’t do my job without my faith,” said Malhame.
Malhame began her career as a registered nurse in 1983. She has spent many years putting the terminally ill’s needs before her own.
At Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, she worked on the medical oncology/autologous bone marrow transplant floor. It wasn’t until Malhame began her work with HIV/AIDS patients at New York Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center that she found her calling comforting those at the end of their lives.
Malhame switched her focus to raising her three children as a stay-at-home mom in Manhasset for 16 years, but she was never idle. She served as president of the Immaculate Heart League for four years and on the Board of Directors at Our Lady of Grace Montessori School. During the time that her children attended Saint Mary’s Elementary School, Malhane spent two years serving as Parent Teacher Organization president, spearheading many fundraising efforts.
When Malhame returned to nursing, hospice found her as she remembered working with those who needed the most compassionate care. The worthy recipient of the prestigious honor feels that witnessing the end of a person’s life is a gift and says, “Though we cannot change the prognosis the patient is facing, as part of the interdisciplinary team at Hospice Care Network, I can help make their remaining time as comfortable as possible.”
In 2015, Manhasset residents Dan and Sue Brown were honored at the Crystal Ball. They have seen the great good that the HCN does. They have learned this from experience but also through the eyes of “a lifelong friend [who] is a hospice nurse and therefore the face of the organization.” She helped guide them when they needed it. It was the combination of these exposures that helped to shape their attitudes towards the network. The Brown’s will tell you that they are “grateful for having experienced Hospice in [their] life” because, “the fact is…that we are all affected by the death of a loved one at some point. Hospice care understands the process and lovingly embraces the patient and those that will be affected.”
This year, the evening promises to be a memorable affair with a cocktail hour, sit-down dinner, open bar, dessert displays, wine tasting, music, dancing and a silent auction with the proceeds benefiting the HCN.
The HCN is a nonprofit organization that serves the terminally ill and their families throughout Long Island through providing individualized support during dying, death and bereavement and addressing physical, emotional, spiritual and social needs.
For more information, call 516-224-6467 or go to www.hospicecarenetwork.org.
—Additional reporting by Meagan McCarty
