(upbeat music) - The INN Between in Salt Lake City works to ensure that individuals experiencing homelessness can receive professional hospice services.

Jillian Olmsted and Kelly Mieremet are here to tell us about the organization and its services.

Hi, ladies, welcome.

So let's start with you, Jillian.

Tell us about the INN Between and what services you provide and whatever else you'd like.

- Yeah, so a serious gap exists in our community where individuals who are experiencing homelessness cannot receive hospice care if they're dying on the streets of our community.

So the INN Between opened in 2015 to provide a place for unsheltered individuals to have a place to stay and have professional hospice services.

And then we also have our medical respite side of our program.

So that's for individuals who need a place to stay to qualify for a life-saving surgery, cancer treatments, things that just can't happen when you're living on the streets.

- Yeah, and I mean it's so essential.

So I'm gonna ask Kelly.

So how does that help kinda lessen the use of emergency services for these people?

- Correct, so there's a lot of people who don't have even a primary care doctor.

So if you think about that, first off, just getting baseline medication, individuals are always going to the emergency room at the hospital.

So they're using those doctors in that room and that space.

And our community is so big, we have lots of emergencies.

So we're trying to take the burden off of the emergency systems, of ambulances, emergency room doctors to help with that preventative maintenance for healthcare.

So really trying to take that off of them.

- Okay, okay.

And Julia, maybe you wanna share a story about a resident?

- Yeah, so we have lots of great outcomes at our program, but the stories we love the most are individuals who come in on hospice and leave on their own two feet and move into some sort of permanent housing situation.

So about six months ago, we had someone come to us, his name was Larry.

And ironically, one of our board members was his hospice physician.

He had days left to live, he was bedbound when he came in, he was looking at an amputation, had severe heart failure, and he was waiting for his family to come to say goodbye.

Cut to six months later, he moved out into housing and is paying his monthly rent and living, hopefully, a long, healthy life.

- Wonderful, well, thank you so much for what you're doing for the community.

Thank you.

- Thank you.

- Yeah, thank you.

- And if you'd like to know about the INN Between and what you might be able to do, go to tibhospice.org, tibhospice.org.

I'm Mary Dickson, thanks for watching "Contact."

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It's what brings us together.

Hi, I'm Mary Dickson.

Here on Contact, we introduce you to local events and organizations that serve your neighborhood.

If you work for a nonprofit and would like to appear on our show, please visit pbsutah.org/contact.