Joshua’s House, a facility offering hospice care to terminally ill homeless patients, broke ground in Natomas this June. Between the need for funding, city approval and a suitable location, it wasn’t until this year that the dream took this ultimate step toward reality.
Yet even now, the project is not without roadblocks.
Just drive through any major California city, such as Sacramento, where homelessness has increased by 67% in the last three years. What happens when a homeless person becomes terminally ill?
The issue of the terminally ill homeless dovetailed with the focus of von Friederichs-Fitzwater’s academic efforts at Sacramento State University and UC Davis. At UC Davis, she was an associate professor in the School of Medicine, focusing on disparities in health care based on age, ethnicity and income.
Hospice, as defined by the National Institutes of Health, is a type of care in which all efforts to prolong a patient’s life ends and the focus turns to making them as comfortable as possible. Hospice is generally reserved for patients with six or fewer months to live.