Livingston Lighthouse – President’s Message: $105,000 Grant Award
Read below the President’s Message from the October 2017 issue of Livingston Lighthouse, Livingston Memorial Visiting Nurse Association‘s internal newsletter:

(l-r) Jim Rivera, Tom Pecht, Vanessa Bechtel, Christine Cohen, Tim Gallagher, Dr. Dial
Merging two organizations doesn’t come without costs — and merging with Camarillo Hospice meant legal fees, licensing fees, computer and security upgrades, and more!
While Livingston was willing to absorb these costs, we did look to our long-time funding partners for help. We were fortunate to meet with Vanessa Bechtel and Jim Rivera at the Ventura County Community Foundation. Marc Wilde and I spent some time discussing the positive impact this merger will have on a very vulnerable section of the Ventura County population. We had the opportunity to share our vision of programs founded on compassionate care for terminally ill patients and their families.
At the September Board Meeting, Vanessa and Jim presented the board with a check for $105,000 to offset these costs. Vanessa had this to say about the merger:
“Ventura County Community Foundation’s commitment to strategic grantmaking could not be better represented than through this $105,000 grant to Livingston Memorial Visiting Nurse Association from the Ruth Daily Livingston Fund. The recent merger between Livingston and Camarillo Hospice not only provides a seamless and more effective provision of services to terminally ill patients and their loved ones but also utilizes precious financial resources in a more impactful manner. The Ruth Daily Livingston Fund was created with the specific purpose of supporting health care services in Ventura County and is a fitting tribute to the memory of her husband, Dr. W.R. Livingston, an esteemed pioneer physician of Ventura County.”
I hope you all had a chance to hear Stacia Sickel’s presentation at the General Staff Meetings in September. Stacia talked about the breadth of individual and group grief counseling services available at the Camarillo office. These comprehensive programs are one important part of the reason for the merger.
As I said during the General Staff Meetings, we now have an expansive umbrella of services available through Livingston — from home health care, to hospice, to palliative care, to CareGivers, to volunteer services, to bereavement counseling. We need to consider the needs of our patients and how they can benefit from our programs.
If you have any questions about the merger, please let me know.
Lanyard K. Dial, MD
President/CEO and Medical Officer