Local News in Brief : AIDS Hospice to Open in Van Nuys
A nonprofit organization that operates a hospice for AIDS patients in Hollywood has announced plans to open the first such facility in the San Fernando Valley on Oct. 1.
Officials of Hospice Los Angeles-Long Beach said the hospice, to be called Pioneer Home, will be in Van Nuys, but would not give the address, saying they want to protect the confidentiality of the patients and prevent hysteria in the neighborhood.
“It doesn’t make a difference where it is,” said Los Angeles City Councilman Joel Wachs, who was named as one of the chairmen for a fund-raiser for the hospice. “The need is tremendous for places like this.”
Pioneer Home will house six patients “who have abandoned curative aspects of their illness and have come here to die,” said John Marceli, president of the group’s board. “Our task is to make them comfortable and give them pain management.”
The organization also operates the Hughes Home in Hollywood, which has been the target of protests by several dozen neighbors who unsuccessfully petitioned city officials to shut it down, saying it was a medical facility that did not belong in a single-family neighborhood.
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