Hospice of Citrus County provides comprehensive services which are available to any terminally ill patients and their families during the last months of live.  HOCC seeks neither to prolong nor to shorten life, but to make the lives of the terminal patient, his or her family members and friends as comfortable and satisfying as possible.  We provide medical, psychological, spiritual, social and financial support to the dying patient and his or her family.  We have or have had patients as young as infants and as old as 102.  Our service area is Citrus County.  We opened a new division - Hospice of the Nature Coast - last year.  That division services eleven counties from Levy to Hamilton at the Georgia/Florida border.  Most care can be provided in the patient's home.  When the patient is not able to remain at home, care can be provided in our hospice house or care unit.  We also have patients in skilled nursing facilities as well as assisted living facilities.  We also provide support for family and friends after the patient's death through grief counseling and support groups.  The social workers role is to assist their team members in providing support to the patient and family.  They make regular visits and assist with any non-medical needs.  Some areas that are most frequently addressed are advance directives and funeral arrangements.  We also assist with financial problems often by helping to complete a Medicaid application.  The hospice social worker becomes an expert on community resources and how to link their patients and families with these resources.  We provide active listening and hospice counseling.  We also have programs just for children.  Our social workers credentials range from BSW's, BS'S, MSW's, to LMH.

Special Information

BSW and MSW students. Students will need their own transportation.  They are given gas reimbursement based on what the agency is paying its employees.  We do not offer any other stipend or reimbursement.  They are covered under our liability insurance and do not need to carry anything additional unless they wish to do so.  Video and audio taping is permitted with the patient's permission.  HOCC is a 24/7 agency, thus we have employees working around the clock.  The normal social work hours are Monday through Friday 8-4:30.  We do have a weekend social worker whose time could be utilized but it would not be a complete internship with only weekend time.  There are no social workers working after 4:30 Monday through Thursday so those hours would be difficult to schedule someone.  Our county does not provide a bus system that would allow a social worker to do the tasks needed to complete an internship.  We have one main office in Beverly Hills but our teams are spread through the county at various office locals.  We currently service over 250 terminal patients and over 400 bereaved family/friends of patients that have died.  There are opportunities with HOCC for experience with general social work skills (client advocacy, community resource knowledge, etc.) therapy (mainly our bereavement department) and children's services (two camps a year, work with community children, etc.).