Memorial Home Services recently launched a hospice speakers' bureau available to community groups throughout central Illinois.

"Hospice is not about dying, but about living the last days of life comfortably and free of pain," SueEllen Billington, director of Memorial Home Services Hospice, said. "This presentation helps people understand what individuals and families go through with hospice and how it benefits them."

The speakers make their presentations in the counties served by Memorial Home Services Hospice: Mason, Cass, Menard, Logan, DeWitt, Macon, Scott, Morgan, Sangamon, Christian, Greene, Macoupin and Montgomery as well as portions of Shelby County. Volunteers and staff members with Memorial Home Services Hospice are available for presentations.

For more information or to schedule a speaker, call Billington at (217) 788-9337. Groups should make their request for a speaker at least two weeks before the date of their event, Billington said.

The nonprofit organization's hospice services include pain and symptom management, bereavement care and volunteer services as well as emotional and spiritual care for terminally ill patients and their families. The hospice program also has on-staff medical social workers, home health aides, a chaplain and dietary counseling.

Memorial Home Services also provides home health and medical equipment services across a 19-county region in central Illinois.