November is National Home Care and Hospice Month.
Five Ways Hospice Helps Deliver a Positive End-of-Life Experience
The National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO) has identified five important ways hospice helps people with a life-limiting illness remain comfortable and peaceful at home. They include:
- Comfort: Hospice provides comfort to people at end-of-life by helping to manage their pain and the symptoms that often cause distress. Those symptoms often include shortness of breath, nausea, and fatigue.
- Peace: The interdisciplinary care experts at hospice can help bring patients and families peace in a variety of ways. It might be by assisting families in working through unresolved conflicts or by helping patients address their fears about death and dying.
- Guidance. Another way hospice can help is by providing education and guidance to patients and their families. Helping them understand what to expect as their disease progresses often leads to reduced anxiety for everyone.
- Something extra. Hospice can help to improve the quality of life and the “joy” factor by providing alternative types of therapies for patients and their families. Typical programs include music, art, massage, and pet therapy.
- More. Finally, in delivering compassionate care, hospice helps to provide patients and their families with more of many things. It might be more quality of life, more joy, more time with loved ones, or more memories to enjoy.
We hope this helps provide you with a better understanding of hospice. We invite you to share this information with friends and family to help us continue to raise awareness during the month of November and all year long.
Other Helpful Hospice Resources:
- Hospice Journey – Free site for hospice families to use to create a website dedicated to their loved one.
- Family Caregiver Alliance – Information and online support for family caregivers.
- Lotsa Helping Hands – Web-based organization that allows friends and family to sign up to help with the daily activities that are required when someone is ill.
Learn more about the hospice program at SpiriTrust Lutheran Home Care & Hospice.