MALACHI HOUSE INC

Only HALF of public safety net hospitals have a palliative care team, and in poor, minority, urban communities (like Cleveland) less than 5% of the dying receive hospice care due to lack of insurance, ability to pay, and accessibility. Access to palliative care is crucial as clinical trials have demonstrated that patients who receive palliative care alongside standard medical treatment are able to cope better and report a better quality of life (National Cancer Institute). This means that large segments of Cleveland’s population are at risk of poor health outcomes, early morbidity, and being considered medically marginalized, particularly when it comes to end-of-life care needs.

To remove those barriers to care, Malachi House combines residential housing with medically supportive services as it relates to palliative, hospice, and end-of-life care. For the last 32 years, we have been changing the way the poor and dying are served within the Greater Cleveland community. A simple, compassionate idea has blossomed into 3 decades of support for Cleveland’s dying poor, and Father Hritz and Mrs. O’Neill’s vision has been fully embraced within Northeast Ohio. As of the end of 2019, the agency has served nearly 2,600 individuals total, and works with 9 hospice partners who provide Malachi House residents with needed medical, hospice, and end-of-life care services. Our work is unique and unduplicated both within Northeast Ohio and the state, and fills a critical gap in Cuyahoga County’s health and human safety services net. As a matter of fact, in the last several years, Malachi House and its leaderships have been visited by individuals from across the country and abroad to see firsthand how the agency operates in hope of replicating similar services elsewhere. This indicates that Malachi House is on the verge of creating systemic change regarding end-of-life care access for the dying poor. We are on the forefront of this movement and are considered an expert in the field.

Staff and hospice partners work in tandem to serve residents’ physical, spiritual, emotional, and psychological needs. We have 15 private, medically-equipped, ADA-accessible bedrooms, and provide around-the-clock care to 15 residents at a time. Local hospice agencies refer residents to our services when they have less than 6 months to live, lack financial and supportive resources, and experience homelessness or housing instability. Malachi House provides not only a clean, safe, and supportive living environment to ensure regular medical care, but also provides for residents’ additional basic human needs – such as food and clothing – as well as offering complementary therapies and compassionate medical support from trained staff and volunteers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Complementary therapies include music, art, and animal assisted therapy. These holistic practices do not replace hospice partners’ medical care, but work in tandem to promote comfort to residents.

Malachi House served over 2500 individuals. We are pleased to report that since our new fiscal year began on July 1, 2019, we have cared for 87 individuals who would have otherwise died lacking access to vital end-of-life medical support. Those we have served thus far this fiscal year ranged in age from 38 to 105; 57% of those in our care during this time frame were white; 36% were African-American; 2% were Asian, and 5% did not disclose their ethnicity; 54% were female and 46% were male. Those in our home had a variety of diagnoses, including COPD, Parkinson’s Disease, Alzheimer’s, heart failure, and several kinds of cancer, among other diagnoses. All residents lived at or below the federally defined poverty level.