115 Porter Drive
Middlebury, VT 05753-8423
About Our Location
Palliative care specialists focus on improving quality of life through services that manage and ease disease symptoms. Palliative care services complement or support ongoing standard medical treatments. This is a key distinction between palliative care and hospice care.
Hospice care takes place toward the end of life when a patient chooses to stop disease-directed therapies and instead focus on their quality of life.
Our palliative care specialists focus on improving quality of life through services that manage and ease disease symptoms. Palliative care services complement or support ongoing standard medical treatments.
You may benefit from palliative care if you have a serious, chronic illness, such as:
- Any type of cancer
- Heart, lung, liver or kidney disease
- Neurological disorders, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, stroke or Alzheimer’s disease
To request a consultation, please tell your doctor or nurse that you would like to meet with the Palliative Care team.
A Team of Experts You Can Count On
Insurance Accepted
Please Note: The below is a list of insurers contracted with Porter Medical Center, but it does not guarantee participation of your specific insurance plan or coverage of your planned service (i.e. medical, dental, behavioral health, etc.). Although some exclusions may be called out below, this list does not fully capture covered lines of business (i.e. Commercial, Medicare Advantage, Managed Medicaid) or products. Please contact your insurer to determine your unique benefit coverage.
- Aetna
- Blue Cross Blue Shield of Vermont (BCBSVT) / FEP / CBA
- Capital District Physicians' Health Plan (CDPHP)
- Capital District Physicians' Healthcare Network (CDPHN)
- CHAMPVA
- Cigna / Great West
- Coventry Health Care/First Health
- Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield (HMO only)
- Fidelis (New York Quality Healthcare Corporation) (excludes Medicare Advantage)
- Harvard Pilgrim Health Care (excludes United Behavioral Health, NH Health Benefit Exchange, Medicare Advantage, and Managed Medicaid)
- Medicaid (VT and NY)*
- Medicare*
- Multiplan / Private HealthCare Systems (PHCS) / Beech Street
- MVP
- The Vermont Health Plan (TVHP)
- TriCare for Life – Skilled Nursing Facility
- TriCare Humana Military
- TriCare Martin’s Point Health Care
- United HealthCare
- United HealthCare – The Empire Plan
- Vermont Blue Advantage
- Veteran's Administration Community Care Network (VA CCN) (United HealthCare)
- Workers' Comp (VT)
*Not every provider type is eligible to enroll with Government Payers. Please consult your provider’s office prior to visit for confirmation.
Palliative Support Services
The Palliative Support Services program provides support for patients, families, friends and caregivers of Addison County, Vermont during and after the dying process within both Porter Medical Center and Helen Porter Rehabilitation and Nursing Center.
Our mission is to provide volunteers to support the dying and their loved ones, give bereavement support to those in need, offer music and other therapeutic practices, create spaces where the dying and their family can be together when home is not an option, and offer community education that recognizes death and dying as a part of life.
We recognize that dying is a part of life and our volunteers can support the dying and their loved ones with the following services:
- Provide volunteers to support the dying and their loved ones
- Bereavement support to those in need
- Create spaces where the dying and their family can be together when home is not an option
- Offer community education that recognizes death and dying as a part of life
For more information about support services please contact Louella Richer at lricher@portermedical.org or by calling 802-388-4744.
Volunteer Services
Trained volunteers provide practical and emotional support to palliative and hospice patients and their families facing the last year of life. Volunteers complete 30-hours of training to become certified for end-of-life patient care. Palliative Support Services volunteers respond to a variety of requests for assistance and become an important part of the circle of care for patients and caregivers. Volunteers may provide:
- Companionship: Visiting, listening, sharing stories, laughing together, crying together, holding a hand, reading, card games or just sitting quietly and enjoying each other’s company.
- Practical help: Meal preparation, light housekeeping, gardening, walking a dog, cleaning a cat box, writing a letter and many other solutions to wishes or needs as determined by the patient, family and caregiver.
- Respite: For family and caregivers supporting an end-of-life patient.
- Arts: Music, song, visual arts and poetry
- Life legacy: Journaling, recording and photo albums
The ARCH Volunteer Team is a different approach to visiting patients. Teams of palliative care volunteers work specifically within the ARCH suites located at Porter Medical Center and Helen Porter Rehabilitation & Nursing. Instead of being assigned to an individual patient, they join a team of volunteers that rotate visits to all those in the ARCH Suites on a daily basis. ARCH room residents are all at the end of their life. They might or might not be enrolled in a certified hospice program; they might have a supportive family, or they might be alone in the world; they might appreciate visits and activity, or they might want to be companioned in silence.
The bereavement volunteer support program provides person-to-person peer companionship and presence for those grieving the loss of a loved one. In addition to grief support groups, volunteers offer an extra layer of validation so often overlooked for those feeling the effects of anxiety, isolation and loneliness.
Bereavement Volunteers have completed the Palliative Support Services 30-hour training specializing in grief companioning.
A volunteer is carefully matched with a griever and typically meets weekly for a period of six months. Honoring the unique needs of each griever, they might meet for coffee, for random walks, a phone call, video chat, or create rituals of remembrance.
Bereavement volunteers are there when the crowds go away and when the crowds are too much.
Wellspring is a group of singers who offer music to patients, family members, caregivers, and friends of those nearing the end of their lives. With a diverse repertoire of songs, we strive to offer music that is meaningful to each person for whom we sing. In addition to singing a cappella, some of our singers also offer instrumental accompaniment or their own music on harp, recorder, piano, guitar and flute.
We believe in the power of music to comfort the soul, build connections among people, invite reflection, kindle memories, and promote a sense of wellbeing. Understanding that every person has different needs and responds to different types of music we personalize each singing experience to the people in the room with us.
Music can have a profound effect. Among its many benefits, music can:
- Promotes a sense of relaxation and inner calm
- Decreases anxiety and fearfulness
- Reduces pain and general discomfort
- Provides a sense of community and connectedness through a shared experience
- Invites reflection, contemplation and meditation
- Kindles memories and encourages life review
- Stimulates communication among patient, family and friends
We are not professional performers but community members who sing from our hearts, bringing to bedsides, and elsewhere, the gift of music to soothe and comfort.
Bereavement Care
Grief is normal, natural and healthy, however, the intensity, duration and experiences involved are unique to each person. Grief ebbs, flows and changes, often in surprising ways throughout a lifetime. We all have the capacity to heal from the death of a loved one. Grieving is how we do that. While grieving, it is normal to experience any of the following:
- Shock and disbelief
- Confusion or difficulty concentrating
- Distraction, frequent thoughts about the deceased or what happened
- Fatigue, even after getting enough sleep
- Sleeplessness and anxiety
- Nausea or tightness in the throat or upper chest
- Changes in appetite
- Waves of intense emotion; longing, loneliness, despair, anger, or sorrow
- Thoughts about the meaning of life and one’s mortality
People who embrace their grief and have support in their grieving enhance their ability to adjust in a healthy way. Palliative Support Services provides a safe space where grief and grieving can be talked about, expressed, embraced and normalized.
- Facilitated Grief Groups – this could link to the classes/events page
- 4 to 8-week group options based on personal needs
- Peer to Peer
- Expressive Arts
- Writing and journaling
- Support during the holidays
- Monthly support groups
- Network of certified bereavement companions — trained volunteers to provide a safe, consistent and compassionate presence, matched one on one
- Annual Candle Lighting Service of Remembrance
- Community outreach and education to schools, organizations and workplaces
- Free resource materials and lending library
Addison Respite Care Home (ARCH)
When home is not an option, welcome to ARCH, the end-of-life suites at Porter Medical Center.
ARCH believes that every person should be able to die in comfort and with dignity. Working collaboratively with partners, ARCH continues to explore ways to accommodate those who are unable to complete their lives in their own home.
ARCH rooms are dedicated to individuals seeking end-of-life care who are unable to complete their lives at home. The rooms provide comfortable spaces for patients with the ability for family to be near.
ARCH rooms are supported by hospice care; a program of palliative and supportive care services providing psychological, social and spiritual care for dying persons, their families, and loved ones. The delivery of care in the ARCH rooms is administered by trained professionals from Porter Medical Center, primary care providers, local hospice programs and the Palliative Support Services ARCH volunteer teams.
Prior to its integration into Porter Medical Center, ARCH was a standalone nonprofit providing volunteers to support people on hospice.
- Addison County Hospice was established in 1983 and served its first family as a volunteer service.
- Addison County Hospice partnered with Addison County Home Health to create Hospice Volunteer Services. The program trained volunteers to Hospice Foundation of America standards and provided the mandated 5% of care from their volunteers to those on hospice. The partnership was maintained until 2019.
- ARCH was established in 2004 by a group of volunteers who were looking for space for people to live out their remaining days when they were not able to die in their home.
- ARCH partnered with Porter Medical Center and Helen Porter Nursing & Rehabilitation in 2011, creating the four rooms we have today.
- In 2019, Hospice Volunteer Services merged with ARCH and added Bereavement Services to create End of Life Services.
- In 2021, End of Life Services Program was established within Porter Medical Center.
- In 2023, End of Life Services Program was changed to Palliative Support Services to better reflect the comprehensive care offered by our staff and volunteers.