Compassus, the long-serving hospice and palliative care organization, celebrated its 30th anniversary this past week of assisting families and patients.

Founded in 1996, Compassus has provided families with the assistance they need for patients in hospice or palliative care in six counties for the last 25 years, including Bedford, Cannon, Coffee, Franklin, Grundy, and Moore counties.

To commemorate its pearl milestone, Compassus held a ribbon cutting celebration event at its office at 1805 N. Jackson St., Suite 11 in Tullahoma, next to Vanderbilt Tullahoma-Harton Hospital on Tuesday, Sept 22. Along with community members and Compassus, representatives from the Tullahoma Area Chamber of Commerce, Manchester Chamber of Commerce, Franklin County Chamber of Commerce, and Moore County Chamber of Commerce attended to celebrate.

“We’re very excited to have everybody from the community here, all our medical directors, some of our corporate people, just to celebrate this occasion,” Wendy Davis, Market Executive for Compassus for Middle Tennessee, said.

Along with representatives of the corporation, also in attendance were the founding members back when it was Hospice of the Highland Rim before being acquired by Compassus.

“To see those employees that started either are still here or came back to celebrate just again shows the culture of this company, of our office,” Davis said. “People just loving each other and really wanting to celebrate this big milestone.”

After the ribbon cutting, guests got to enjoy some food, beverages and a chance to win some door prizes.

As for the turnout, Davis praised the turnout for the celebration and said the day was also to celebrate the team at Compassus, which includes staff who have been there for over 15 years, for working hard day in and day out to take care of patients across the community.

“We take care of patients at home, in hospitals, just to really give people the care they need at end of life,” Davis said, where she felt that end of life care is overlooked at times. “End of life care should be as special as any other care you get throughout your life.”

Davis also encouraged anyone to reach out to Compassus if they have questions and to try to be proactive instead of reactive in a crisis situation.

“With hospice, you can get help and care, and it’s so wonderful for families to receive that early and the benefit of getting supplies covered, equipment covered, medications covered just to really help take that burden and all the stress of end of life off of patients and families,” she said.

For more information on Compassus, visit compassus. com or call 455-9118. For more information on HHRF, visit hospiceofthehighlandrimfoundation. org.