Mechanicsburg, PA– Messiah Village, a continuing care retirement community, obtained a $15,500 grant from the Mechanicsburg Area Foundation to initiate its new project. The project, inspired by the grassroots Person-Center Care Movement(PCCM) is intended to create, implement, and share an end-of-life curriculum and remembrance program to aid residents, families, and staff of Messiah Village as they journey through the process of dying and grieving.

Jim Kinsey, Messiah Village Community Life Leader and Team Development Coordinator, will be overseeing the project as the program coordinator. He explained, “The project includes five major components that, once implemented, will redefine how long-term care staff members process and participate in the end-of-life journey and how our organization can model a more respectful and sensitive method for helping families and staff deal with practical and emotional end-of-life issues.”

 Messiah Village has been journeying towards a person-centered community-minded model of care since 2006 and therefore necessitates an end-of-life program that assists all stakeholders with the death and dying process. Messiah Village’s “Fulfilling the Promise Of Person-Centered Care” program seeks to fulfill the educational needs of the community, highlight the process of dying in the community, and foster engagement of other community members in this shared life experience.

 The program includes five distinct steps beginning with educating employees about person-centered care via classroom training and computer-based instruction. The next step is an intensive eight hour education module. Third, the program seeks to create community traditions of remembrance including the creation of a comfort box, a handcrafted wooden box meant to store cherished belongings. The fourth step is to create an organized communication system to send letters to grieving family members and friends. The last step is replication of this program in other long-term care communities located in this area.

 Messiah Village representatives recently accepted the grant at the Mechanicsburg Club awards breakfast.