Hospice
A paradigm shift of viewing palliative care or hospice as a gift instead of seeing it as giving up has the potential to change the way we experience advanced age ― Lisa J Shultz
image by: Supportive Hospice Care
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When Is The Right Time For Hospice Care?
When my 91-year-old father returned from the hospital after a bout of pneumonia and was readmitted scarcely a week later, his doctor suggested that hospice care was probably a good idea. He was extremely frail and barely able to walk. His overall health wasn’t improving.
Like most people eyeing hospice care as the end stage of medical intervention, I was reluctant to make that decision. What if he could get better? Wasn’t hospice only for people with a few weeks — or days — to live? Was I being unrealistic about his condition?
Such questions often torment families. It’s one of the most difficult health care decisions you’ll make because of hospice's astounding recognition…
Resources
A Hospice for Those Who Have No One
A former nursing professor creates a place to care for the poor and alone in their final days.
How The Pandemic Has Affected Patients In Hospice Care
One of the most heartbreaking aspects of the coronavirus is that many patients die alone. Hospice is designed to provide gentle end-of-life care, so the hospice field is working to adjust to the pandemic.
Is Dying at Home Overrated?
While there are still those who subscribe to the idea that excellent health care demands doing everything possible to prolong a life, many doctors and patients now prefer a less intensive approach when time is short. Rates of hospice enrollment have increased and the home has re-emerged as a place to die, not only preferred by patients and families but also heavily recommended by clinicians, especially in my field.
More Americans are dying at home. Is that a good thing?
Hospice has since been transformed from a social movement into an essential component of the health care system. The rise in home deaths documented in our study is likely a result of greater use of hospice along with broader efforts to de-medicalize and improve end-of life care.
Patients Want To Die At Home, But Home Hospice Care Can Be Tough On Families
"I'm not anti-hospice at all," says Joy Johnston, a writer from Atlanta. "But I think people aren't prepared for all the effort that it takes to give someone a good death at home."
The way we die will be considered unthinkable 50 years from now
How we treat dying people needs to change.
This Was Not the Good Death We Were Promised
When my father was dying of pancreatic cancer last summer, I often curled up with him in the adjustable hospital bed set up in his bedroom. As we watched episodes of “The Great British Baking Show,” I’d think about all the things I couldn’t promise him. I couldn’t promise that the book he’d been working on would ever be published. I couldn’t promise he would get to see his childhood friends from England one more time. I couldn’t even promise he’d find out who won the baking show that season. But what I could promise — or I thought I could — was that he would not be in pain at the end of his life.
When the Hospice Care System Fails
Your father was gasping for breath. The hospice care providers had not yet trained you in how to respond. So you called 911.
Approaching Death
A nurse goes from the ER to a hospice, and changes the way she thinks about life and its end.
For Hospice Physician, Patient Care Means Walking 'The Path With Them'
As a physician treating end-of-life patients, Kras is committed to both being honest with his patients and making clear he is willing to "walk the path with them, whatever that path may be."
Hospice is Still Special
When socializing with fellow young physicians, most of whom are not in palliative medicine, I am reminded, in Hospice and Palliative Medicine, I have the unique opportunity to share time and attention with my patients.
Reimagining hospice care — for the living
Hospice care includes end-of-life support from nurses, home-health aids, and others for people who are believed to have fewer than six months to live and who reject curative treatments. The care usually extends until death, and is free for people on Medicare.
When Is The Right Time For Hospice Care?
Such questions often torment families. It’s one of the most difficult health care decisions you’ll make because of hospice's astounding recognition of mortality.
Hospice Action Network
NHPCO and the Hospice Action Network work closely together to make an impact. NHPCO sets the public policy agenda through its Legislative Affairs Committee. The Hospice Action Network implements the agenda through direct lobbying, grassroots advocacy, and by empowering Hospice Advocates to share their hospice story with Congress.
Hospice Patients Alliance
HPA promotes quality hospice services whether a patient is enrolled in a licensed hospice or not, whether residing at home or in a facility.
HospiceChoices
HospiceChoices is the first National Job Board / Career Center that is offered exclusively to the hospice community, and forms part of a wider strategy by our parent, Choices Healthcare Solutions, to bring unique technologies to serve the hospice community.
HospiceResources.net
Welcome to a free online directory for managers, staff and volunteers of hospice programs.
American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine
AAHPM is dedicated to expanding access of patients and families to high quality palliative care, and advancing the discipline of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, through professional education and training, development of a specialist workforce, support for clinical practice standards, research and public policy.
American Hospice Foundation
The American Hospice Foundation supports programs that serve the needs of terminally ill and grieving individuals of all ages.
Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association
The CHPCA is the national voice for Hospice Palliative Care in Canada. Advancing and advocating for quality end-of-life/hospice palliative care in Canada, its work includes public policy, public education and awareness.
Children's Hospice International
Our goal is to ensure medical, psychological, social and spiritual support to all children with life-threatening conditions and their families by providing a network of resources and care.
Hospice Foundation of America
Hospice Foundation of America provides leadership in the development and application of hospice and its philosophy of care with the goal of enhancing the U.S. health care system and the role of hospice within it.
International Association for Hospice & Palliative Care
Our Mission is to collaborate and work to improve the quality of life of patients with advanced life-threatening conditions and their families, by advancing hospice and palliative care programs, education, research, and favorable policies around the world.
National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization
We are the largest nonprofit membership organization representing hospice and palliative care programs and professionals in the United States. The organization is committed to improving end of life care and expanding access to hospice care with the goal of profoundly enhancing quality of life for people dying in America and their loved ones.
Vitas
VITAS Innovative Hospice Care® provides end-of-life care for adult and pediatric patients with life-limiting illnesses. We work with patients and families to provide comfort and preserve dignity in the face of terminal illness.
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