Hospice means not being alone, unsure and unprepared when a life-limiting illness becomes part of your family’s reality; your new normal.
Hospice is coordinated, comprehensive, and compassionate care for the individual and family. Hospice care includes a team of skilled and caring practitioners: nurses, bath aides, physical, occupational and speech therapists, social workers, chaplains, and volunteers. Hospice is directed by, and focused, on the individual and family’s needs and wishes.
Hospice works closely with the individual’s primary care physician, allowing the person to continue with his or her own physician while coordinating hospice care.
In “A Practical Guide for Home Hospice,” Sara Barton beautifully describes the deep and embracing touch of comfort:
“Comfort is more than just a body without pain. It is a mind that no longer worries that family life will change for the worse after death or that death will be physically painful.
It is a heart that is not heavy with grief or anger because life is ending without much left to do or not enough time or energy to do it.”
Hospice brings much needed hope to a family, by providing support, guidance and reassurance to the individual and to their caregivers. Hospice opens the doors for family time and touching connections, memories and poignant pauses, laughter and love.
