We care for you where you live.
Our interdisciplinary teams care for patients wherever they live — in their home, with a caregiver, in an assisted living community or at a skilled nursing facility. When you are facing a life-limiting illness, we can help improve the quality of your life and support family members and loved ones.
Visit our free online e-library with educational articles, caregiving tips and a monthly newsletter to help you manage difficult symptoms, make important decisions and deal with serious illness.
In-Home Hospice
Most patients receive hospice care in their own home or wherever they call home. Being in a familiar environment with loved ones and having pain and symptoms well-managed can enrich the final stages of your life. Hospice benefits also include any equipment or supplies necessary, such as medications, hospital beds or other medical equipment.
Hospice Care in Facilities
We have contracts with most of the long-term care facilities in our area and our team works closely with facility staff to meet your care needs. As with in-home hospice, medical equipment, supplies and medications related to hospice care will be covered. Let the social worker in your facility know if you want to consider hospice and they will work with us to address your needs and any questions you may have.
As a matter of philosophy and practice, Gentle Shepherd provides hospice care to anyone who meets Medicare’s and our guidelines. Regardless of your religious affiliation, we “meet you where you are,” honor your wishes and help you and your family make the most of your final days.
Service Areas
Gentle Shepherd Hospice serves the Roanoke and Lynchburg regions, including the surrounding counties. Please give us a call at 800-789-0586 to find out if you are located in one of our partially served counties.
Full County
Amherst
Appomatox
Bedford
Botetourt
Campbell
Partial County
Charlotte
Craig
Floyd
Franklin
Nelson
Pittsylvania
As a matter of philosophy and practice, Gentle Shepherd provides hospice care to anyone who meets Medicare’s and our guidelines. Regardless of your religious affiliation, we “meet you where you are,” honor your wishes and help you and your family make the most of your final days.
Recent Blog Posts
In Our Words: The Freedom to Question
by Brian Whited, our Chaplain GSH Staff, on this Good Friday, here is a devotion for you. Love you all. Keep up the good work. God is in control. He owns the cattle on a thousand hills. He knows each hair on our head. But the world we live in is also chaotic and...
In Our Own Words: Our Souls are fed by Needle & Thread
by Carey Frost-Perdue, Executive Administrator of Administration When our way of life becomes unstable, we can tend to panic and close ourselves off and away until the danger has passed. That is just human nature. It's not necessarily a bad thing because when...
In Our Own Words: Cows on a Hill
by Brian Whited, Chaplain, Gentle Shepherd Hospice The Mighty One, God, the Lord, speaks and summons the earth from the rising of the sun to where it sets. From Zion, perfect in beauty, God shines forth...for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a...
In Our Words: Prayers during difficult times
In the midst of this crisis, most of the Gentle Shepherd staff is in the field or working remotely. In lieu of a marketing team meeting today, we received a touching email from Tracie McKenney, our executive director of strategic development and mission advancement. I...
Keep calm and stay in balance
This is a time of great uncertainty. It's natural to feel a wide range of emotions, including fear, anxiety, confusion, or loneliness. It is also a time to take extra care to address your feelings and keep them from paralyzing or overwhelming you. Get the facts. Our...
COVID-19: Recommended Steps to Prevent Illness
As COVID-19 spreads, experts indicate many people will not have or exhibit serious symptoms even if they contract the disease. However, there are two groups of people who are especially at risk, the elderly and those with chronic medical conditions. Older adults and...
SPECIAL ALERT Regarding our Response to COVID-19
Gentle Shepherd Hospice continues to closely monitor COVID-19 and following all Centers for Disease Control (CDC) guidelines. Since early in 2020, our multi-disciplinary emergency preparedness response team has been coordinating all operations in accordance with...
Caring for a loved one with COVID-19?
What we know so far is that COVID-19 is spread much like the regular flu—through coughs and sneezes that put droplets in the air and on surfaces. It may be 2–14 days after exposure before a person has symptoms. That means people can spread the virus without knowing...
Talking with children about serious illness
Children are like sponges. They soak up whatever is around them. If Grandpa is sick, or Grandma has dementia, they’ll pick up on your emotional responses. If no one has explained the situation, they’ll make up their own ideas about what’s going on. As a result, they...
Is twice a night too much?
Many older adults complain of having to get up several times in the night to pee. Some of this is a normal part of aging. Our bladder capacity gets smaller, so we need to void more often. But frequent trips to the toilet can have a serious impact on sleep....
Cooling down to make a decision
Our fight-flight-or-freeze reactions are deeply embedded in our body and brain. In intense situations, they take over. As a family caregiver, it's easy to feel overwhelmed by the many decisions that must be made. And the responsibility. This is especially true in...