Wilkinsburg Resident Leads Volunteers at Cedars Community Hospice

Eric Fithyan is helping families to accept loss, plan services for loved ones and bring people together through his position at Cedars Community Hospice.

As the bereavement and volunteer coordinator at the state of the art facility in Monroeville, Fithyan of Wilkinsburg gives families the opportunity to tell their own stories, while at the same time, connecting volunteers with patients to create companionship in the last days of life.

“I am a licensed funeral director in Pennsylvania and managed different funeral homes,” Fithyan said. “One day, a family came to me and said the father was in hospice care and I asked what type of arrangements would they like and asked if they had made plans, and she said no. I noticed that they were on hospice care for at least three to four months and thought, ‘Why didn’t you have this opportunity to talk and ask your father?’”

Fithyan witnessed firsthand that healthcare workers didn’t want to talk about arrangements after death and neither did the families. That’s when he discovered Cedars, an organization that serves people in Allegheny, Washington and Westmoreland counties.

“When a family comes onto hospice, I get to know their life story and through that, we build a relationship and by the time their loved one passes away, we have all of the information to create a meaningful service and grieve process,” Fithyan said.

Fithyan defined hospice as care for person who has a terminal illness with less than six months to live.

“They want to remain at home in their environment and we want to limit hospitalization for them,” he said. “It’s a way for them to have a quality of life and a dignity of death.”

The current facility opened last March and is LEED certified. It is a 16-bed in patient unit for symptom management and pain control in a specialized area for short term stays. While other centers do exist in the region, this is the only one in the area built specifically for hospice care, Fithyan said.

“This is western Pennsylvania’s only ground up facility,” he said.

Cedars Community Hospice also requires five percent of all work to be completed by volunteers, whether it’s in the office or with patients. Last year, Cedars had 31,000 paid care hours and a total of 1,700 volunteer hours. This year, volunteers have donated a total of about 600 hours so far.

“The volunteers are companions that sit with patients when their families aren’t around, they are across the area we serve and we also have vigil volunteers that come in overnight so none of our patients die alone,” Fithyan said. “We have volunteers that help us in the office, with fundraisers. If we don’t have a volunteer program, we don’t have a hospice.”

There are about 90 volunteers at Cedars Community Hospice and 50 to 60 staff members.

“The volunteers and employees have extremely big hearts,” Fithyan said. “It takes a certain person and a certain skill.

Felicia Scrivens of Wilkinsburg, executive assistant, has been with Cedars since January. She plans events and fundraising events.

“We have a golf outing in June and a doo-wop dance in August,” Scrivens said.

Fithyan said he got involved in funeral preparation and hospice care to help others through the difficult losses in life.

“We work with the family through that process to get them prepared for the funeral home so they can provide a meaningful service, because if you have that, then your grief process isn’t as complicated,” Fithyan said. “It’s a way for families to tell their stories and to live that life in those memories.”

For more information about Cedars Community Hospice or to volunteer, call 412-380-9500 or e-mail efithyan@cedarscommunityhospice.com.