About NHRP

In 1997, St. Mary's Duluth Clinic (SMDC), in conjunction with the Ely Bloomenson Community Hospital, established the Community Health Council, with representation from Ely, Babbitt, Tower and the surrounding areas, to identify the medical needs of the community and to determine what, if any, needs were not being met through existing services. The Council determined that two specific needs were not being met: respite care for homebound individuals and hospice care for the terminally ill.

Based on these findings, the Community Health Council directed their coordinator, Linda O'Neill-DeRemee, to form a task force to explore initiating volunteer services supplementing these two gaps in service. The task force was born in May 2000 and immediately conducted a survey through area churches, which identified 49 families in need of respite services.

Concurrently, SMDC in Duluth began plans for professional outreach and medical services for hospice programs in communities where their satellite clinics were located. Hospice is a philosophy of care assisting the terminally ill and their families, ideally in their homes. It was believed that a local volunteer program could help support the medical and professional hospice services of SMDC.

The task force created by the Community Health Council was transformed into Northwoods Hospice Respite Partners (NHRP), a non-profit organization, in April 2001. A Board of Directors was elected and officers selected. While respite and hospice care are two separate entities, it was believed that a community-based program could support both and would have a greater chance of succeeding by collaborating rather than functioning independently.

In September 2001, NHRP received start-up monies from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in the form of a Faith in Action grant. An Executive Director was hired in November 2001, and NHRP has continued to move forward and grow ever since, both through the services it provides and through the overwhelming community and agency support it has received.

Northwoods Hospice Respite Partners is now providing a wider range of services than ever before, including but not limited to, volunteer respite care, SMDC East Range Hospice support, transportation to medical appointments, transportation and facilitating of errands, providing community information about issues regarding respite care, caregiver needs, area support groups and hospice services. NHRP also provides the invaluable service of networking with area resources and agencies to provide help and information about other services for caregivers, homebound or disabled persons (of any age) and hospice patients.