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Mayor Gibbons read and presented the proclamation to Reverend Curtis Singleton with Amorem during Council's regular meeting Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2022.

"I have served at hospices across the southeast for nearly 15 years. I’ve never seen a community support hospice the way this community does," Rev. Singleton said. "Thank you for all of the work you have done, it’s upon your shoulders that we stand. We’re here to serve you and carry on the great work that you began. We seek to serve you and we thank you for thinking about us."

Formerly Burke Hospice and Palliative Care and Caldwell Hospice and Palliative Care, Amorem provides palliative medicine, hospice care, grief support, advanced care planning, and advanced cardiac care in Lenoir, Caldwell County, and the region. Amorem serves Alexander, Ashe, Avery, Burke, Caldwell, Catawba, Cleveland, Lincoln, McDowell, Rutherford, Watauga, and Wilkes counties. Click the following link to learn more about Amorem, www.amoremsupport.org.

National Hospice & Palliative Care Month November 2022

WHEREAS, for more than 40 years, hospice has helped provide comfort and dignity to millions of people, allowing them to spend their final months at home, surrounded by their loved ones; and

WHEREAS, the hospice model involves an interdisciplinary, team-oriented approach to treatment, including expert medical care, quality symptom control, and comprehensive pain management as a foundation of care; and

WHEREAS, beyond providing physical treatment, hospice attends to the patient’s emotional, spiritual and family needs, and provides family services like respite care and bereavement counseling; and

WHEREAS, palliative care delivers expertise to improve quality of life and relief from pain, can be provided at any time during an illness, and hospices are some of the best providers of community-based palliative care; and

WHEREAS, in an increasingly fragmented and broken health care system, hospice is one of the few sectors that demonstrates how health care can – and should – work at its best for its patient; and

WHEREAS, every year 1.5 million Americans living with life-limiting illness, and their families, received care from the nation’s hospice programs in communities throughout the United States; and

WHEREAS, hospice and palliative care organizations are advocates and educators about advance care planning that help individuals make decisions about the care they want; and

WHEREAS, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have pledged to put patients first in all of its programs – including hospice – ensuring a coordinated and patient-led approach to care, protecting patient choice and access to individualized services based on a patient’s unique care needs and wishes.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Mayor Joseph L. Gibbons, on behalf of the City of Lenoir City Council, do hereby proclaim November 2022 as National Hospice and Palliative Care Month in Lenoir and encourage citizens to increase their understanding and awareness of care at the end of life, discuss their end of life wishes with their families, and observe this month with appropriate activities and programs.

This the 1st day of November 2022.

Joseph L. Gibbons, Mayor

Mayor Joe Gibbons, on behalf of City Council, proclaimed November 2022 to be National Hospice & Palliative Care Month in the City of Lenoir. Pictured from left: Councilmen Todd Purdue and Ralph Prestwood, Mayor Pro Tem Crissy Thomas, City Manager Scott Hildebran, Reverend Curtis Singleton, Councilman Kent Greer, Mayor Joe Gibbons, Councilmen David Stevens and Ike Perkins, City Attorney David Lack (also an Amorem Board Member), and Councilman Jonathan Beal.