Hospice for AIDS Victims Is Dedicated in Norwalk

State and local officials gathered Wednesday morning on the grassy grounds of Metropolitan State Hospital to dedicate an old building for use as a 35-bed AIDS hospice.

The former hospital administration building, a structure of brick and plaster built in 1923, will be remodeled and expanded at a cost of up to $2 million before opening next summer, officials said.

“This hopefully is going to be an opportunity for people, who in their last days, are going to have a family setting, a humanitarian setting in which to spend their last few days,” said state Sen. William Campbell (R-Hacienda Heights), a leading advocate of hospice facilities.

The nonprofit AIDS Hospice Foundation of Los Angeles is operating the hospice. It will have 25 beds for AIDS patients who require medical care. The remaining 10 beds are for people who have contracted AIDS but need little care.

Other Patients May Be Admitted

The foundation also is considering admitting people with life-threatening illness other than AIDS, foundation President Michael Weinstein said.

The hospice staff is expected to number about 40, including a part-time doctor, licensed vocational nurses, a bereavement counselor and a social worker, Weinstein said. There will be a kitchen staff and other support personnel.

State-backed bonds will provide funds for the renovation and expansion of the building.

The foundation is seeking grants and to raise other operating funds for the facility, which will run on an annual budget of about $1.2 million, Weinstein said.

Some patients will pay for hospice services, but Weinstein said the foundation hopes to raise enough money to provide care for indigent patients.

The foundation was dealt a major setback earlier this summer when Gov. George Deukmejian vetoed $450,000 in state funding for the Norwalk hospice and another facility to be established next to Martin Luther King Jr. Hospital in South-Central Los Angeles.

Of that amount, $250,000 was to pay for operating costs at the Norwalk facility, Weinstein said. Campbell said he will seek to restore the funding with the help of state Sen. Cecil N. Green (D-Norwalk), who attended the dedication.

Campbell also has sponsored legislation which would provide another funding source for the hospice. The bill, SB 276, would extend Medi-Cal funding to hospices. The measure was passed in the Senate and is in the Assembly Ways and Means Committee, an aide to Campbell said.

The senator said Wednesday he supports hospice care because it is inexpensive as well as humane. Hospice care costs about $200 to $400 a day per patient, a fraction of the cost of hospitalization, officials said.

The Norwalk hospice will draw patients from a 15-mile radius. That area includes Long Beach, the city with the highest per capita incidence of AIDS in the state, Weinstein said.

Weinstein said Wednesday’s dedication was a way of introducing the hospice to the community, which he hopes will provide volunteer support and other assistance.

Norwalk Mayor Grace Napolitano said she anticipated members of the surrounding community would step forward. She said she had received no complaints about having a hospice in Norwalk.

“It’s an excellent way of helping people who are terminal,” she said. “We’re human beings and we need to take care of each other.”

Another hospice established by the AIDS Hospice Foundation, a 25-bed Chris Brownlie Hospice in Los Angeles, opened last December and reached capacity two months ago, Weinstein said. There are 11 persons on the waiting list.