You might think someone who is under hospice care would be confined to a bed.
But that’s not necessarily so.
Taking care of someone in hospice is about keeping the patient comfortable and maintaining the patient’s quality of life, not just end of life.
Hospice provides care and support ““ both emotional and spiritual ““ to people in the last stages of a serious illness. It’s a specialized kind of care for those facing a life-limiting illness, not just cancer as some people think. But it also helps the family manage the details of caring for the seriously ill.
People plan for weddings, the birth of a child, college and retirement, even spend months planning for vacations. But rarely, if ever, does anyone plan for the final phase of our lives.
“You have to have six months or less for a diagnosis for life,” said Emily Cahill, the Hospice Outreach Liaison at St. Elizabeth Healthcare. “There are a variety of diagnoses, not just cancer.” Those could include heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder and dementia.
Care takes place in the patient’s home or in a home-like setting (nursing home, assisted living facility or inpatient hospice center), and concentrates on making patients as free of pain and as comfortable as they want to be so they can make the most of the time that remains. Part of the mission of hospice is that the patient’s quality of life be as important as length of life.
Hospice is not a treatment. “It is more about comfort care,” said Cahill. “It is more about looking at the diagnosis and not being in pain.
“We’re not going to give them a shot that makes them die and we’re not going to keep them from dying. We’re going to just let nature run its course and make them comfortable while that happens.”
Hospice isn’t about dying but is about living as fully as possible despite a life-limiting illness. People under hospice care do as much as they can, including running errands and spending time with loved ones.
According to a 2011 public opinion research study by Public Opinion Strategies commissioned by the Center to Advance Palliative Care, people want access to hospice care:
“¢ 95 percent of people answering the survey said it is important “that patients with serious illness and their families be educated about palliative care”
“¢ 92 percent said they would consider palliative care for a loved one if they had a serious illness
With hospice, there’s a team of professionals ““ including nurses, social workers, certified nurse assistants, chaplains and volunteers ““ available to both the patient and the family. St. Elizabeth Hospice offers a year of bereavement support for the family after their loved one passes away.
“The hospice team helps with any type of feelings that they are having,” Cahill said, “whether that be pain, emotional or spiritual. All of those aspects of hospice are there for the patient to kind of come to terms with. The best thing about it is all of those things are included in hospice care, rather than having a nurse come out once a week and look at you.”
That is the essence of hospice care, providing the type of care most people say they want at the end of life: comfort and dignity.
