{"id":126186,"date":"2026-04-25T14:58:54","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T20:58:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cancer-support-and-hospice-groups-highlight-assistance-available-in-southwest-colorado\/"},"modified":"2026-05-10T12:35:55","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T18:35:55","slug":"cancer-support-and-hospice-groups-highlight-assistance-available-in-southwest-colorado","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cancer-support-and-hospice-groups-highlight-assistance-available-in-southwest-colorado\/","title":{"rendered":"Cancer support and hospice groups highlight assistance available in Southwest Colorado"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The
The Hospice of Montezuma held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for its new headquarters at 512 N. Broadway in 2016. (Journal file photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Leaders in cancer support and end-of-life care from Montezuma and Dolores counties addressed the Mancos Board of Trustees on Wednesday to thank the town for its financial contribution and highlight lesser-known resources they provide.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are mandated to provide bereavement services to our hospice patient families after a death. However, it\u2019s not funded anywhere,\u201d said Carol Baumgartner of Hospice of Montezuma, adding that the town\u2019s $1,500 contribution in January helped grief support services continue for Montezuma and Dolores counties residents.<\/p>\n

The Hospice of Montezuma website<\/a> lists free support groups and individual services for people experiencing specific types of grief, including the loss of a child, suicide support, men\u2019s and women\u2019s groups and others.<\/p>\n

According to the organization, these services reached more than 1,500 people in the counties last year. However, in written and oral reports to the board, hospice representatives described suboptimal attendance, a lack of awareness affecting outreach sessions and a surplus of equipment in storage.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the moment we have a very fancy electric wheelchair, with a ramp that hooks to your car and everything, looking for a home because we can\u2019t use it for our patients and so we\u2019re looking for somebody who does need it,\u201d Baumgartner said.<\/p>\n

Beyond palliative care, Hospice of Montezuma offers medical equipment such as wheelchairs, walkers and other mobility tools at no cost to community members. The organization also provides end-of-life preparedness sessions. On April 22, Hospice of Montezuma brought together insurance, legal, financial and health care experts for an information session on advance directives, which outline a person\u2019s wishes when they are unable to communicate their decisions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also received some funding this year to be able to do that as webinars because people always can\u2019t come to an all-day presentation,\u201d Baumgartner said. \u201cAnd so we\u2019re hoping to provide some of that information out to the community throughout the year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cancer Resource Alliance is another recipient of the town of Mancos\u2019 grants. Sue Tompkins, the organization\u2019s treasurer, said the $1,500 grant supports financial assistance for cancer patients in the region.<\/p>\n

Last year, 13% of patient applicants lived in Mancos \u2013 16 out of 117. Eligible applicants, including those with a cancer diagnosis or those receiving cancer treatment in Montezuma and Dolores counties, can apply using a form available on the organization\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year we have given $700 to each applicant,\u201d Tompkins said. \u201cWe\u2019ve never turned away anyone who has applied to us for funds.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tompkins said Southwest Memorial Hospital is beginning a partnership with Cancer Resource Alliance, transferring money from its former cancer fund and expanding the organization\u2019s reach.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are going to give us all of their funds to add to our work. So we\u2019re quite excited about that,\u201d Tompkins said.<\/p>\n

avanderveen@the-journal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

board meeting, Hospice of Montezuma and the Cancer Resource Alliance detail support for families and individuals <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":126187,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[28,29,6419],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-126186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-tj-trueanthem"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126186"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126186\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":128391,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126186\/revisions\/128391"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126186"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=126186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}