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Hospice In Danbury Honors Malloy For Support Of Healing Hearts Center

DANBURY, Conn. — Gov. Dannel P.  Malloy never forgot the impact Regional Hospice and Home Care’s Healing Hearts Center for Grief & Loss had on his constituents during his most painful days of leading Connecticut.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, center, was honored recently by the Regional Hospice and Home Care in Danbury. See story for complete photo IDs.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, center, was honored recently by the Regional Hospice and Home Care in Danbury. See story for complete photo IDs.

Photo Credit: Contributed

His concern for grieving families lead to even more comprehensive bereavement services onsite in the new facility Regional Hospice recently opened in Danbury.

At a recent reception at its new Center for Comfort Care & Healing, Regional Hospice and Home Care honored Malloy for his advocacy and support of its new Healing Hearts Center for Grief & Loss. 

Regional Hospice President & CEO Cynthia Emiry Roy presented Governor Malloy with an award for his advocacy as head of the State Bond Commission that awarded a $1.2 million grant to build a 3,200 square-foot expansion to the hospice center’s original plans and house its bereavement center onsite. 

“We are so grateful to Gov. Malloy for helping us obtain bonding support for our new bereavement center,” said Roy. “On behalf of thousands of children and families we have the privilege to care for, we thank him for recognizing the needs of dying patients and the community members who are grieving the loss of loved ones.”

On Dec. 14, 2012, as word spread throughout the media that a tragedy had unfolded in Sandy Hook, the bereavement team at Regional Hospice’s Healing Hearts Center immediately responded. The Healing Hearts Center team continues to support the Newtown community and their family members from throughout the region who suffered unfathomable loss that morning.

Members of Newtown’s Kids In Deeds Organization (KIDOs) were among the 75 guests who attended the event in the Center’s tribute garden. The KIDOs started supporting the Healing Hearts Center as seventh-graders in 2012 and raised $51,000 for the custom-designed heartstrings playscape for children in Healing Hearts bereavement groups and whose families are being cared for at the Center.

The state grant allowed Regional Hospice to include a playground for children, and four specially designed and fully-appointed meeting rooms to serve children from age four through seven and pre-teen groups. Additionally, the grant supported large meeting rooms outfitted with technology to better serve the teen and adult groups.

This past January, the Healing Hearts Center relocated from a small building on Stadley Rough Road into the new family centered, state-of-the-art Center for Comfort Care & Healing at 30 Milestone Road in Danbury. 

The Healing Hearts Center provides free bereavement support to more than 1,200 participants annually. Programs are designed for adults and children as young as four, with support groups focused on different types of loss, such as loss of a parent, infant loss, loss of a spouse and loss of a loved one by suicide. 

Photo caption: From left to right: State Rep. David Arconti, Regional Hospice and Home Care Chief Clinical Officer Deborah Ryan, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, Regional Hospice and Home Care President and CEO Cynthia E. Roy and Regional Hospice and Home Care Chief Operating Officer Paul L. Sirois at the reception honoring Gov. Malloy for his advocacy and support of Regional Hospice and Home Care’s Center for Comfort Care & Healing and Healing Hearts Center for Grief & Loss.

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