The Journey Home is a non-profit charity specializing exclusively in end-of-life care. Only the second charity of this type in Oklahoma, The Journey Home opened its doors in Bartlesville on January 21, 2014. Our community has many excellent health care facilities and professionals who provide excellent care for the majority of those in need. The Journey Home serves the exceptional situations when, for various reasons, people who are near end of life need another care alternative.

The Journey Home is a six bedroom home staffed with professional caregivers and trained volunteers who provide continuous personal care for our guests. Personal care includes all the functions a terminally ill person would require in a home environment, including bathing, changing, dressing, repositioning, and feeding. The Journey Home caregivers take these burdens, relieving family or others so that they may spend these last days as daughters, wives, brothers, sisters or significant others in our guests’ lives. Local hospices provide and execute the medical plan of care for the guests as part of the overall approach in providing a “home environment” with dignity, compassion, comfort, and love at the end of life. The Journey Home never closes and is staffed around the clock, and its services are provided free of charge. Costs for care provided by hospices are paid generally by Medicare, personal insurance, or in other ways.

The Journey Home is a 501(c)(3) non-profit charitable organization. It receives no government financial support and relies solely on the generosity of others. This financial support comes from individual donations, foundations, and corporate giving, memorials and bequests. In-kind giving and the dedication and services provided by volunteers offset significant operating expenses.

Anyone can make a referral request for admission. The criteria for admission helps everyone involved determine if The Journey Home is the best alternative for each situation. We provide a warm, welcoming home environment, including access to a kitchen and dining areas and day beds in each guest room for family members or significant others.

The community response has been amazing, exceeding all expectations. In the first six months of operation we served 31 people. Following are some comments we have received:
“This place is wonderful. We couldn’t have taken care of her without you.”
“Thank you for loving my Daddy. We have been amazed at the care and love The Journey Home has given him and all the family.”
“Our family has felt welcome and comfortable here while my mother was a guest. Thank you.”
“We are so thrilled to have such sweet and caring people to care for our family member in this time of his life. These volunteers and staff have such a hard job and I so admire them and respect them and appreciate all their efforts to comfort my brother. The family thanks you from the bottom of our hearts.”
The Journey Home is yet another progressive step forward in Bartlesville’s long journey of building on its elite status as a great place to work and live.