By Phyl Newbeck, Vermont Maturity correspondent.
From its founding days in 1946 to the present, Visiting Nurses Association & Hospice of the Southwest Region (VNAHSR) has had a mission to enhance the lives of those they serve through comprehensive home and community services. Although that mission hasn’t changed, but the name of the organization soon will. It will be known as Green Mountain Home Health & Hospice (GMHHH).
Director of Communications, Mikayla Fisette wants to make sure people realize that only the name has changed. “While our name and look are new,” she said, “everything you value about us remains the same: the skilled nurses, therapists, and aides who know you by name, the local roots that connect us to your community, and the compassionate care that has earned us high-quality ratings.”
VNAHSR is proud of the fact that all 248 staff members are local, with most having lived in Vermont all their lives. Some have been with the organization for over 35 years, and there are some clinicians who have been caring for the same patients for over a decade. “This isn’t a corporate takeover or a merger,” Fisette said. “This is a new name for the same organization and the same team that has cared for the community since 1946.”
VNAHSR covers Bennington, Franklin, and Rutland Counties, and in 2025 alone they served 4,056 patients. Their clinicians visit patients in their homes, providing care, education, and support. That level of care allows some people to leave the hospital sooner, avoid staying in healthcare facilities, and learn on their own how to manage their conditions. Staff members include nurses, physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech therapists, medical social workers, registered nutritionists, and home health aides. The goal of these specialists is to improve the patient’s quality of life and promote independence through fall prevention, IV therapy, medication management, wound ostomy care, palliative care, pediatric high-tech and rehabilitation services, and fall prevention. Home health care includes help for specific conditions like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes, heart disease, and stroke.
VNAHSR also offers hospice care for people with life-limiting illnesses. They describe hospice as a process which neither hastens nor postpones death. Rather, it is a family-centered, team approach that includes a doctor, nurse, social worker, counselor, chaplain, home health aide and trained volunteers. The team focuses on the person’s physical, psychological, social, and spiritual needs, addressing the issues most important to the person’s wishes at the end of their life and improving their quality of life.
While most people think of older citizens when they think about home health care and hospice, VNAHSR also provides pediatric nursing and rehabilitation services. The organization has registered nurses trained in children and family health, working closely with other health care professionals on issues including tracheostomies, feeding tubes, ventilators, and infusion therapy. Their Kids on the Move is a pediatric rehabilitation program serving children from birth to 21 years of age. The program was founded in 1995 to provide therapy in the homes of the families they serve through the six school districts in and around Rutland County and via consultative services to clinics in Brattleboro and Bennington. And then expanded to the rest of the counties they serve.
Another program at VNAHSR is called Maternal Child Health and, as the name implies, it works with women from pregnancy through post-partum. Services include providing health care information and links to other human service agencies for assistance with housing, food, counseling, and employment services, assistance with prenatal health issues, wound care after Cesareans, maternal and newborn assessments, medical support for premature infants and those with special needs, childhood illness, child safety, assistance with breastfeeding, education on preventative healthcare, and family planning.
In addition, the organization provides workshops for those who want to draft advance directives, which will help them and their families plan for their death, so the patient experiences exactly what they wish when they pass, and others know this plan to carry out. They host grief support groups at several locations. They also host a Death, Dying and Danishes group that meets monthly in each county, offering a safe and comfortable space to talk about death. Although they have many wonderful professionals on staff, they also provide hospice training to volunteers in Rutland and Bennington Counties who wish to help.
One of those volunteers, Ed Keating, said that from an early age, death was part of his life experience. Now he leads a group that gathers a mix of attendees who want to comfortably talk and learn more. “I lead Death, Dying & Danishes in Bennington, a community discussion series based on the Death Cafe model. These monthly gatherings create a welcoming and safe space where people from all walks of life can openly explore death, grief, and caregiving without judgment. The feedback we receive is inspiring, participants say these conversations are thought-provoking, comforting, and empowering, helping them become more informed and open to discussing mortality with their loved ones.
For anyone considering hospice volunteering, I would say: It is a gift to give and to receive. You don’t need to have all the answers, just compassion, presence, and a willingness to walk beside someone on their unique journey. This work enriches your own life in ways you never expect.”
Nicole DeNoyers has been a hospice volunteer since March 2024. She organizes advance directives workshops and Death, Dying, & Danishes groups in Rutland. Like Margaret, she had a good experience with a hospice volunteer who sat with the family when her father died so she is happy she can return the favor. Nicole said she’s met some incredible people at the bedside and in the community and believes she has been able to touch some lives and bring peace to patients and their families as they face death.
One of GMHHH’s clients, a woman named Jo, was diagnosed with Stage 3 breast cancer. She described herself as “needle-phobic” and said her husband’s visual impairment made it difficult for him to provide her chemotherapy injections. Jo described the nurse who came to her house as “emphatic, professional and full of good humor.” She came every other week to keep Jo on schedule with her treatments. “She lifted a tremendous burden from our shoulders,” Jo said. “She was a godsend. Her presence was more than medical care; it was peace of mind.”
Another client, a high school student named Reilly who suffered from an exceedingly rare physical disability, wanted to be able to walk across the stage to receive his high school diploma. The young man had not been expected to live to age 10 and used a wheelchair but an occupational therapist and a physical therapist worked with him both at school and at his home to ensure that Reilly was able to walk across the stage on graduation day.
“We are proud to be a Vermont-based and Vermont-focused agency since 1946,” said CEO Jessica Boutin. “We’re not a national corporation; we are your neighbors providing professional care in the place patients are most comfortable – home.”
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