Former Staffer Joins Hospice Choral Group

Naida Reed, a former Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative employee, friend of the Foundation, and author of The Pittsburgh Way to Efficient Healthcare: Improving Patient Care Using Toyota Base Methods, is one of a group of singers in the Pittsburgh Threshold Choir who volunteers by singing at the bedsides of hospice patients in Allegheny County.

The choir provides the gift of song, kindness, and presence by singing gentle, non-sectarian harmonies by request to those who are very ill or dying. The choir also performed for family members and the community on the first anniversary of the Tree of Life massacre commemorative event at the JCC.

"It is always a deeply personal and moving experience for everyone involved: patients (conscious or not), family members and singers. We have sung for family members after their loved one has died. We have been singing as death occurred. On hard days, we have even had requests from burdened nurses in the hospice units, and we have sung for them," Reed said.