Altru Hospice of Cavalier, ND, in partnership with Faith in Action received the 2009 Outstanding Rural Health Program Award, presented to programs that deliver services in innovative ways, highlight coordination among providers, or improve the quality of care to rural residents.

Altru’s Hospice has worked together with Faith in Action to provide hospice care to the Cavalier area since March 2006. To date, they have served 56 families in Pembina County. Five registered nurses, a medical director, a social worker, an office worker, a certified nurse’s aide, and 11 trained volunteers compose the partnership’s staff.

The core belief of the program is that each person has the right to die pain-free and with dignity, and that families will receive the necessary support to allow that person to do so. Altru Hospice and Faith in Action staff have received numerous written expressions of gratitude from patients’ family members, which lent support to granting the award.

The award is presented annually as part of the Dakota Conference on Rural and Public Health, which is facilitated by the Center for Rural Health at the UND School of Medicine and Health Sciences. This year’s conference, scheduled for April in Mandan, was canceled because many of the conference’s participants were providing support during the statewide emergency from flooding and severe weather.

The Dakota Conference is a joint effort by Altru Health System of Grand Forks; North Dakota Public Health Association; North Dakota Rural Health Association; UND College of Nursing, and the UND School of Medicine and Health Sciences’ Center for Rural Health and Department of Family and Community Medicine.