Hospice care improves the quality of life for patients, families, and caregivers. However, individuals often wait too long to have the conversation, reducing their chances of having full access to hospice’s full-spectrum support services. Studies show that the sooner qualifying patients receive hospice care, the longer they live, and the richer their lives become.
If we had our way, clients would contact hospice agencies and begin learning more immediately after receiving a terminal prognosis or diagnosis. Hospice is an incredible organization. Our services are completely free of charge, covered by Medicare, and provide a well-rounded net of physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual support that goes far beyond the clinical care realm.
Did you know that in addition to living longer and with a higher quality of life, hospice services also extend to your family? We take a whole-family approach to caregiving and it’s never too early to learn more about what we have to offer, so you’re ready to move forward with our services when you’re ready.
One of the biggest commonalities between nearly all of our hospice clients, particularly those that are 70 years old or younger, is the shock that they have an end of life prognosis. While we all know we’re going to die someday, most of us think of that someday as far into the future. This means our culture isn’t preparing for the end of life the way it should be.
It’s never too early to begin your end of life plan. Doing so eases the way for yourself and your family, and it helps you to live the best quality of life while you can.
End of life care is an umbrella term covering all of the ways we hope to be cared for and supported when we’re nearing and at the end of our lives. For those who are diligent about long-term-care planning, end of life care begins with completing advanced medical directives, ensuring your wishes are honored in various, unpredictable medical situations. It continues on to consider the types of treatment or support you’d prefer as age- or health-related declines make it impossible to care for themselves.
In a culture that focuses more on medical treatments than quality end of life care, this term is quickly distilled to the question of palliative care or hospice? If you’re in an immediate healthcare crisis, that’s where you should start. Otherwise, feel free to scroll down to the section “It’s Never Too Early to Begin Thinking About End of Life Care.”
Those of us who work in hospice are passionate about what we do because we witness every day how our services improve the quality of life for both patients and families. That’s right; hospice services are designed to support the entire family unit – not just the client.
Joining a grief support group or seeking individual grief support is a powerful way to learn more about grief, how it affects you in your daily life, and process your grief to move forward in a more balanced way.
When you begin searching for grief support, you’ll have two available options. The first is to enlist the help of a clinical grief therapist. The other is to join a peer grief support group or one-on-one peer grief support help. This post clarifies the difference between the two, so you can determine which one feels like the best fit for you at this moment.
During one of our grief support groups the other day, a member shared that the first grief she ever experienced was when her family sold their green VW bus. She was five years old at the time, and when the family left the van at the car lot, she was beside herself with grief. She cried and cried, and her parents didn’t understand why.
From her perspective, it was the only car she knew, and she remembers feeling like they were abandoning a member of their household without giving it a proper goodbye. She’s wanted to buy a green VW ever since. While the group nodded and smiled as she shared, we were also grateful to have a chance to share some of “The Other Types of Grief” we have experienced in our own lives.
We can’t tell you how many times our nurses, social workers, or volunteers have heard the words, “We wish we would have called hospice sooner. It has made our lives so much better.” When you’re facing a terminal or end-of-life prognosis, you and your family deserve all the support you can get. The hospice model of care is incomparable when it comes to providing that network.
Many people mistakenly believe that signing up for hospice means that death is imminent, and they aren’t “willing to give up yet.” In fact, hospice provides comfort and support at every level – physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual – for patients and their families. Remarkable Fact: Contrary to popular belief, signing up for hospice actually improves life expectancy for many patients. Based on findings from a large cohort of retrospective studies, “Receiving at least one day of hospice care may increase life expectancy by up to three months.” But, of course, we hope that anyone facing a terminal illness would benefit from far more than a single day of our care. Whether you choose hospice care or palliative care options (more on those below), we sincerely hope you find the care you deserve as you and your family navigate this next powerful chapter in your journey.
We have yet to meet a hospice nurse, physician, social worker, staff, or volunteer that doesn’t feel our work is “a calling.” The fragile, respectful, and complicated realms of dying, death, and grief require unique skill sets and gifts. Those who want to work in this field have a special relationship with life and death, seeing them as part of the same and connected whole.
This is all to say that while there is a logistical and linear path to becoming a hospice nurse, odds are your journey is one of the heart and soul.