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Her unwavering commitment to helping others made her a leader in Houston’s hospice movement and an advocate for women’s mental health care.
With a handful of volunteers, Paula Paust (’79, M.S.W. ’81) started a grassroots hospice movement by establishing Houston’s first hospice, now The Hospice at the Texas Medical Center. In 1992, she extended her expertise to executive director of The Women’s Home— established in 1957 for women battling substance abuse as well as mental illness. Under her direction, The Home’s first major capital campaign raised $4.5 million and doubled its capacity to serve clients.
Today, The Women’s Home, unique in the Gulf Coast Region, offers long-term residential care as well as psychiatric, psychotherapy, vocational, spiritual, nurse practitioner, and chemical dependency services.
“I can’t imagine not being involved in something that helps people,” says Paust, named among Who’s Who in Houston Health Care. “I think it’s the social work part of me that wants to make a difference.”
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