Hospice care is a unique form of care for those who are elderly or suffer from a terminal illness.
There are many forms of hospice care and different things hospice care provides for its patents.
What is Hospice Care?
The philosophy behind hospice care is it focuses on the quality of life and doesn’t try to postpone death. Caregivers will focus on helping their patients live their life as fully and comfortably as possible.
Caregivers treat their patients with respect and compassion, as the patients are often elderly or suffering from terminal illnesses.
Hospice caregivers don’t focus on trying to cure the disease that ails a patient. Instead, caregivers treat the symptoms and allows the patient to live with dignity and surrounded by loved ones.
It allows the patient and their family to make decisions regarding the patient’s care.
When Should a Person Receive Hospice Care?
When a disease or illness is no longer treatable by medical professionals, the patient may be referred to hospice care. Typically, when a doctor gives a prognosis of six or fewer months to live, they may be transferred to hospice care.
According to onesourcehh.com, the majority of hospice patients in the past have had cancer. Recently, new guidelines were established that help hospice evaluates and admit patients with heart, lung, kidney and liver disease as well as Alzheimer’s and Dementia.
It’s normal for patients to resist hospice care, as they often believe they’re giving up fighting the illness that plagues them. It’s essential for patients to remember hospice focuses on giving patients the best quality of life that they can have.
Also, patients can leave hospice anytime to try to receive more treatments. Sometimes a doctor will choose not to mention hospice as an option out of sensitivity to the patient but will talk about it if the patient and their family asks about it.
What does Hospice Care Provide?
Because the goal of hospice is to make patients comfortable and live fully, there’s a wide range of different types of care hospice caregivers can give to their patients.
Some of which include:
Palliative Care and Symptom Control
Palliative care is symptom management and can be done at home, hospice center, or medical practice. It’s vital to remember Palliative care does not try to treat the disease. Instead, it works to manage the symptoms and side effects of the disease.
Palliative care also allows the patient to make decisions regarding how they’d like to treat their symptoms.
Home Care and Inpatient Hospice Care
The conduct of hospice is typically in the patient’s home; there may be times when the patient needs to stay at a hospital or a hospice center. The caregivers arrange this, and the patient can return home whenever they are ready.
Spiritual Care
Caregivers are very respectful to the differing religious beliefs of patients. Also, they will help meet the spiritual needs of the patient.
Bereavement Care
Bereavement is the period of mourning after a loss. Caregivers will support and help a patient’s loved ones after the patient has passed away.
Caregivers can help loved ones find therapists for emotional support. Often, they help with bereavement care for up to a year after the loss.
Hospice care can be hard to accept for many patients. However, it’s important to know the care provided is always specific to the patient’s needs and wishes.
The family will be involved, and caregivers will always strive to make the patient, and loved ones, as comfortable and happy as possible.
The death of a loved one can be a traumatic experience. Those who suffer bereavement can go through a spectrum of emotions.
Here are a few ways on how to live with the grief when a loved one has passed away, and how to make each day a little easier to bear.
