Avow, Treasure Coast Hospice and Haven Hospice, all founding members of Synthase, were recognized with honors at the Florida Hospice and Palliative Care Association’s yearly forum May 11 and 12 in Orlando.
“These awards show the dedication Synthase members have to the community. Non-profit post-acute and home-based care provides compassionate hospice and palliative care through a unified structure,” Synthase President and Chairman Jaysen Roa with Avow Hospice explains.
The Awards of Excellence recognize the best Florida offers hospice and palliative care. Nominations were judged by a selection committee composed of leaders within the hospice industry.
Award winners recognized from the Synthase Collaborative included:
- Christian Joanides, RN Case Manager from Avow Hospice, received the Hospice Heart Award, which recognizes an individual or team who exhibits the “heart of hospice” with compassion, integrity and care for families during their time of need. Joanides helped a patient with an LVAD, a device outside of his body acting as a heart, during Hurricane Ian. Joanides went 3 to 4 times a day to retrieve batteries from the patient to charge at his own home, which had a generator. This is one of many stories about his compassionate patient care.
- Dawn Kolderman, senior clinical director from Avow, received the Barbara Janosko Excellence in Leadership Award, which recognizes a mid-level manager whose work has promoted the advancement of excellence. Kolderman’s support of the hospice mission includes planning weddings for patients, ensuring pediatric patients and their families have holiday gifts and helping Avow receive the highest marks in the Great Place to Work employee satisfaction survey.
- Claudia Beureuse, director of access from Haven Hospice, received the Catalyst Award, which recognizes an individual who has consistently demonstrated leadership in forging collaboration that makes hospice unique. Beureuse helped create collaborative teams to improve patient care and satisfaction, mentoring others and uniting her department with positivity and engaging activities. In addition, she created a comprehensive hospice booklet to target both current and prospective patients.
- Rebecca Bellocchi, LCSW, MSW road social worker for Treasure Coast Hospice, received the Rising Leader Award, which recognizes an individual under the age of 35 or someone who has been working in hospice for less than five years and exhibits exemplary professional accomplishments. Bellocchi has trained 10 new MSW employees and continues to precept them, developed an audit tool to review the Social Worker clinical documentation, and has provided clinical leadership for two MSW student interns.
Thanks to the generous support of awards sponsors, each award winner received a cash prize in addition to a recognition plaque.
The non-profit group Synthase Collaborative serves Alachua, Baker, Bradford, Clay, Brevard, Collier, Columbia, Dixie, Duval, Flagler, Gilchrist, Hamilton, Lafayette, Levy, Martin, Nassau, Okeechobee, Putnam, St. Johns, St. Lucie, Suwannee, Union and Volusia counties.
About Avow
Avow was founded in 1983 as Collier County’s original, nonprofit hospice. Today, Avow’s nonprofit companies provide palliative care consultations for adults facing chronic or serious illness and hospice care and bereavement support services for children and adults. To learn more about the scope of services provided by Avow, call (239) 261-4404 or visit avowcares.org.
About Synthase Collaborative
Synthase is a not-for-profit collaborative formed in 2021 to unite hospice, palliative care, and post-acute care organizations across Florida. The collaborative will foster the ongoing exemplary care and support provided by each community-based organization through the Synthase statewide network. Synthase member organizations care for an average of 2,200 patients daily and provide care and services to more than 18,000 adults and children annually across 23 Florida Counties. For more information visit synthase.care or e-mail info@synthase.care.
