The Role Of Palliative Care In Hospice
The word palliative means “relieving symptoms without treating the condition.” This is precisely the role of palliative care in hospice.
Palliative Care In Hospice Differs From Palliative Care
This can become confusing because there is an entire specialty, called palliative care, that helps to provide comfort care while a patient simultaneously pursues curative treatment for their disease. While Palliative Care and Hospice Care share a portion of their concentric circles, they are not quite the same thing. Palliative care as a specialty provides comfort care while patients continue pursuing curative treatments. It may be covered by insurance, but it may not be – but it does provide a whole-person approach to comfort and healing that is not always available from treatment specialists. Hospice is free to all qualifying patients, regardless of income, as it is paid for through Medicare. However, it is designed to bring whole-person comfort once qualifying patients decide to forgo or cease treatments. If you are struggling to maintain quality of life while pursuing treatments, we recommend reading our post, When to Stop Disease Treatment, and discussing it with your healthcare providers, spouse/partner, and loved ones.Hospice Is Dedicated To Palliative Care At The End Of Life
If you’ve decided to stop pursuing curative treatments (medications and therapies to manage existing health conditions and symptoms are absolutely fine), hospice can provide invaluable peace of mind for patients and families. Rather than go it alone, with erratic support and information gaps between medical appointments, hospice care brings all of that to you – at your home, hospital, post-acute facility, or wherever else you live. From hospice physicians and nurses to medical aides, social workers, chaplains, volunteers, and more – you and your loved ones/caregivers have access to all of the support and information you need. And, because hospice runs 24/7 nurse hotlines, you can get answers to immediate questions about how to best care for or handle a situation at any time of the day or night.Hospice Comfort Care Looks Like…
The role of palliative care in hospice is multi-faceted, and our services are as varied as the people we serve. Ultimately, our goal is to help you get the very most out of each day you have left – and live those days as peacefully as possible. We can’t emphasize enough: the sooner you enlist the help of a hospice agency, the better as studies show that people who take advantage of hospice live longer – and with greater satisfaction and ease than those who wait too long or never use hospice at all. Here are some examples of what comfort looks like for our clients.Healthcare and comfort wherever you live
For many clients, the rigorous schedule associated with a terminal or chronic illness (physician appointments, seeing specialists, lab work, filling/picking up prescriptions…) becomes almost as exhausting and depleting as the condition they have. Once you’ve enrolled in a hospice agency’s service, we bring everything to you. From visits to physicians, nurses, aides, and the rest of the hospice team (chaplains, social workers, therapists, volunteers, etc.), the world comes to you. Where you’re at. So you can make the most of each day and conserve your time and energy.Receiving “durable medical equipment” where you need it
When you’re in hospice, any of the durable equipment you need is ordered by your hospice nurse and delivered right to your home – typically within a single business day or less. Durable medical equipment is a medical/industrial term used to describe all of the structural, medical, and furniture-like items that increase ease and comfort as physical abilities wane – or your body needs different positions/setups to navigate daily tasks. Examples include:- Beds that raise/lower/change position and alternate pressure to prevent bedsores.
- Trays and tables that adjust to the heights or positions required for you and caregivers to access what you need.
- Breathing support (oxygen – home and portable, nebulizer (breathing treatment support), cushions/supports, etc.)
- Bedside or bathroom commodes.
- Wheelchair/walker/canes
- Orthotics
- And so on.
Accurate information and education
Some of the biggest discomforts around illness or end-of-life issues include the mystery of what’s what at any given moment. And, despite what it might seem like, Google doesn’t have all the answers – delivered by a compassionate human with hospice expertise. Once you’re in hospice, you have access to weekly visits from the care team (more as needed, depending on your situation) and a 24-hour hospice hotline. This resource is invaluable in those middle-of-the-night moments when you aren’t sure if what you’re experiencing is normal. Or, perhaps a brand new symptom seems to appear in a single day; whatever the case, hospice nurses are there to answer your questions, provide answers and insights – or instructions on what to try or do next. This level of access provides significant peace of mind because you know you are never alone!Emotional and spiritual comfort
Living with a terminal condition is not for the faint of heart. It takes its toll emotionally and spiritually – as well as physically. However, the clinical medical world doesn’t yet offer much in the way of caring for the emotional and spiritual being. Our hospice social workers, chaplains, and grief support teams can meet with you regularly to listen, provide resources we feel might be helpful, companion you through the shadow times, and facilitate your process – whatever that might be. We are not here to tell you or teach you anything. Quite the opposite. We respect every client’s questions, concerns, doubts, and crises and share the space with them until they find their way back to a more ease-filled place. Clients who live alone frequently seek emotional or spiritual comfort by utilizing our hospice volunteers. These volunteers visit them to read, converse, share stories, listen to music, take walks outside, and otherwise find a bit of joy together that day.Clarity around end-of-life issues and planning
We mentioned that “the mystery of what’s what in any given moment” is often the scariest part. This is certainly true for anyone facing the end of their life – whether in a month, six months, or several years down the road. The reality is that most of us die a slow death due to a chronic illness/condition or the result of “old age.” Regardless, the mysteries around all of it can be the scariest part. As your hospice team, we provide comfort by shining a light into that space as much as we can, including:- Learning more about what happens when the body is dying.
- Real-time information about present-moment experiences and what they mean (for example, a waning/lack of appetite is normal, and it’s wise to respect that to keep the body free from food at those times as it’s not processing it well.
- Knowing how to recognize active dying (when a person has a week or less, in most cases )
- Helping you create personalized end-of-life plans if you haven’t done that already so you can rest assured things will happen according to your wishes.