What does hospice offer

You can go back to in-home care when you and your family are ready. Since people differ in their spiritual needs and religious beliefs, spiritual care is set up to meet your specific needs.

It might include helping you look at what death means to you, helping you say good-bye, or helping with a certain religious ceremony or ritual. Regularly scheduled meetings, often led by the hospice nurse or social worker, keep family members informed about your condition and what to expect. Family members can get great support and stress relief through these meetings. Daily updates may also be given informally as the nurse or nursing assistant talks with you and your caregivers during routine visits.

The hospice team coordinates and supervises all care 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. This team is responsible for making sure that all involved services share information.

This may include the inpatient facility, the doctor, and other community professionals, such as pharmacists, clergy, and funeral directors. Hospice care assures you and your family that you are not alone and can get help at any time. Measure content performance. Develop and improve products. List of Partners vendors. While advances in modern medical treatments and technologies are impressive, there are situations in which patients either cannot or will not pursue efforts to cure a life-limiting illness, disease, or condition.

This article explains what hospice care is, the services it generally provides, and how to determine if seeking hospice care is appropriate for you or a loved one. Hospice is a specialized form of medical care that seeks to provide comfort and maintain a patient's quality of life to the greatest extent possible for those facing a life-limiting illness, disease or terminal condition.

In addition, hospice care can provide support, resources, and information to a patient's family and loved ones during this difficult time—particularly to a family member providing caregiving to the patient—as well as assistance after a hospice patient's death occurs. It's important to understand that while hospice care does not seek a cure to a patient's life-limiting illness, disease or condition, hospice also does not hasten death or "help someone die.

Hospice care is typically provided in the patient's home but some patients might receive temporary inpatient care at a hospice facility. In addition, hospice care does not provide hour, "round the clock" nursing care, so family members, hired caregivers or nursing home staff might provide caregiving services.

In contrast to traditional palliative care , hospice care is appropriate when there is a life expectancy of six months or less. Private health insurance might pay for some services. Health insurance providers can answer questions about what they will cover.

Visit the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization website to find palliative care near you. In palliative care, a person does not have to give up treatment that might cure a serious illness. Palliative care can be provided along with curative treatment and may begin at the time of diagnosis. Over time, if the doctor or the palliative care team believes ongoing treatment is no longer helping, there are two possibilities.

Palliative care could transition to hospice care if the doctor believes the person is likely to die within six months see What does the hospice six-month requirement mean? Or, the palliative care team could continue to help with increasing emphasis on comfort care. Increasingly, people are choosing hospice care at the end of life.

Hospice care focuses on the care, comfort, and quality of life of a person with a serious illness who is approaching the end of life.

At some point, it may not be possible to cure a serious illness, or a patient may choose not to undergo certain treatments. Hospice is designed for this situation. The patient beginning hospice care understands that his or her illness is not responding to medical attempts to cure it or to slow the disease's progress. Like palliative care, hospice provides comprehensive comfort care as well as support for the family, but, in hospice, attempts to cure the person's illness are stopped.

Hospice is provided for a person with a terminal illness whose doctor believes he or she has six months or less to live if the illness runs its natural course. It's important for a patient to discuss hospice care options with their doctor. Sometimes, people don't begin hospice care soon enough to take full advantage of the help it offers.

Perhaps they wait too long to begin hospice and they are too close to death. Or, some people are not eligible for hospice care soon enough to receive its full benefit. Starting hospice early may be able to provide months of meaningful care and quality time with loved ones.

If you or a relative has a terminal illness and you've exhausted all treatment options, you might consider hospice care. Find out how hospice care works and how it can provide comfort and support. Hospice care is for people who are nearing the end of life. The services are provided by a team of health care professionals who maximize comfort for a person who is terminally ill by reducing pain and addressing physical, psychological, social and spiritual needs.

To help families, hospice care also provides counseling, respite care and practical support. Unlike other medical care, the focus of hospice care isn't to cure the underlying disease. The goal is to support the highest quality of life possible for whatever time remains. Hospice care is for a terminally ill person who's expected to have six months or less to live. But hospice care can be provided for as long as the person's doctor and hospice care team certify that the condition remains life-limiting.

Many people who receive hospice care have cancer, while others have heart disease, dementia, kidney failure or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Enrolling in hospice care early helps you live better and live longer. Hospice care decreases the burden on family, decreases the family's likelihood of having a complicated grief and prepares family members for their loved one's death.

Hospice also allows a patient to be cared for at a facility for a period of time, not because the patient needs it, but because the family caregiver needs a break. This is known as respite care.

Most hospice care is provided at home — with a family member typically serving as the primary caregiver. However, hospice care is also available at hospitals, nursing homes, assisted living facilities and dedicated hospice facilities.