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| News & Events |
| November 01, 2005
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| BASIC HOSPICE FACTS |
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Some Basic Facts about Care Everyone Will Need
From the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization and Niagara Hospice
We plan for weddings, the birth of a child, college and retirement. Sometimes we spend months planning for vacations. Many Americans even plan for more difficult situations, by writing wills, purchasing life insurance, and giving consent for organ donation.
Yet far too many people wait until they are in the midst of a healthcare crisis before determining what options are available, or what care they or their loved ones want. If these plans have not been discussed, families find that a difficult situation can become even more painful.
Only 10 percent of us will die suddenly. The other 90 percent will be aware that we have most likely begun the final phase of our lives. Hospice is there to provide guidance and support through that journey.
The foundation of the hospice philosophy is for every individual to have a dignified, pain-free death. Since serving its first patient in 1988, Niagara Hospice has served over 6,000 individuals as well as their immediate and extended families. Hospice services include physical, emotional, spiritual and bereavement care. Hospice care is appropriate for any advanced stage illness, not just cancer, where the prognosis is a life expectancy of approximately six months or less.
November is National Hospice / Palliative Care Month. The purpose is to raise awareness about quality end-of-life care. Palliative care offers comfort and support, while hospice brings compassionate care when cure is not possible. Hospice and palliative care both provide pain and symptom control, dignity, and spiritual and emotional care to the dying and their families.
Care services are provided through the combined knowledge and skills of an interdisciplinary team of professionals, including physicians, nurses, homecare aides, social workers, spiritual caregivers, counselors, and trained volunteers.
The goal of this type of care is to treat the person instead of the disease, and focus on the family caregivers, not just the individual. The quality of life is emphasized, not its duration. “Pain and symptom management, in-home care and providing a plan to make the most of every day has helped many of our patients achieve end-of-life goals,” states Patricia Degan, Niagara Hospice Director of Marketing and Public Relations.
Just the facts:
* Hospice usage in the U.S. continues to grow. The National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization reports that one million Americans with life-limiting illness were served by the nation’s 3,300 hospices this year.
* Hospice is covered under Medicare, Medicaid, most private insurance plans, HMOs and other managed care organizations.
* Approximately 500,000 hospice volunteers contribute 13 percent of the care services provided to hospice patients and families. This is equal to 10 million hours per year. (This represents almost one volunteer for every two patients.)
* Despite the fact that our country's population is aging, less than 25 percent of Americans have submitted advance directives to outline their treatment wishes in case an illness affects the decision-making process. Hospices are an excellent resource to guide patients and families through advance care planning and decision-making, and encourage them to do so before a crisis occurs.
* Research shows that people want the services hospice provides. Ongoing outreach is needed to help all Americans learn about this important type of care.
For more information, call the HelpLine at 1-800-658-8898, Niagara Hospice at 439-4417 or visit www.niagarahospice.org or www.caringinfo.org.
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