How Can Hospice Help
Hospice Care brings compassion, care and support to individuals and their families transitioning through life-limiting illness while providing outreach, education and expertise in grief support to the entire community.
In a hospice, terminally ill patients are cared for in recognition that it is the last stage that they will live. The goal is to make sure that the quality of the patient’s life is as high and comfortable as possible.
Hospice works side-by-side with physicians, hospital, and long-term care staff to provide a comprehensive plan of care focused on easing the physical, emotional and spiritual pain often accompanying a terminal illness. Working in partnership with the facility staff, the Hospice Team develops a joint plan of care tailored to the specific needs of the resident and family. Among its major responsibilities, the hospice team provides:
- Emotional, physical and spiritual support and services for patients, family and friends faced with a life-limiting illness.
- Hospice services most often enable a patient to be at home or in an inpatient facility surrounded by family and friends.
- Help with daily needs, such as bathing, cooking, cleaning, or other needs.
- Regular visits to the home by nurses who have training in hospice care, as well as 24-hour, on-call nursing support.
- Manages the patient’s pain and symptoms
- Provides needed drugs, medical supplies, and equipment;
- Coaches the family on how to care for the patient
- Makes short-term inpatient care available when pain or symptoms become too difficult to manage at home, or the caregiver needs respite time
- Provides bereavement care and counseling to surviving family and friends.
With the primary focus being to control the pain and manage the symptoms, Hospice services may include anything from providing medical services and equipment to transportation, daily activity assistance, speech or occupational therapy, dietary counseling, emotional support bereavement counseling and many others as needed by patient and family.
