Undoubtedly you’ve read obituaries that have stated that the deceased was under the care of a hospice, but unless you’ve had someone in your family who was terminally ill, you may not understand exactly what part the hospice plays in a person’s final months. Although the patient may have a host of doctors and nurses looking after his or her health issues, there are still many needs that medical personnel just aren’t able to address due to lack of time. A hospice is available 24/7 to help a patient and his loved ones through a difficult time.
Terminal illnesses all have one thing in common. During the free hospice care orange county last stages, they are very painful and cause a lot of problems for the individual who is suffering with them. A hospice will endeavor to give the patient both medical and emotional care in order to ease the symptoms and relieve some of the pain. If the person should need medical supplies and equipment, the hospice is there to provide for these necessities. Since loved ones often get over-stressed trying to care for someone so ill, hospice will take care of the nursing duties for awhile in order to give the caregivers temporary respite.
In addition to physical care, hospices work at offering emotional support to help the patient deal with their worsening symptoms and imminent death. Trained personnel know what to say and how to ease the mental stress of those who they work with. Counseling is available to help deal with this stress and with any religious issues which the patient may have. In many cases, a patient will need to have someone validate that it’s okay to die and leave his or her family behind. Once they have established this reality in their mind, they will be able to die in peace.
If the person is still living at home, hospice can offer help with meal preparation and housekeeping. It’s important that the patient eat regularly, even if they don’t feel like doing so. Treatment of terminal diseases is often rigorous and demand a lot of the person the treatments are administered to, so keeping up their strength as much as possible is an important factor.
For the family of the person who is dying, it can also be a really stressful time, even if they aren’t the primary caregiver. It is so difficult to cope with the impending death of someone who you value in your life, to watch them get sicker and sicker and their bodies waste away. These people are also in need of counseling and support, and a hospice is there for them, too, both as the person is dying and following their death.