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What are hospice services?
What are the different types of hospice services?
What is the life expectancy for hospice care at home?
How does hospice care help a person with a life limiting illness?
Aug 17, 2022 · 4 min read. During an illness that is terminal, you or your loved ones may talk with your doctor and decide the treatments meant to cure or slow a disease are no longer working, or you’re ready to...
Hospice care often includes palliative care, but they are not the same thing. Hospice care is given when a person’s cancer cannot be controlled by cancer treatment. Hospice focuses on managing symptoms and side effects. Hospice care is given to people during their last 6 months of life.
Finding the hospice provider or program that best meets your needs is important. Learn what factors should be considered when choosing a hospice team.
No matter where it is given, hospice care is meant to be available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Your doctor, hospital social worker, case manager, or discharge planner can help you decide which type of hospice program is best for you and your loved ones. On this page. [ show] Who provides hospice care?
- Overview
- What is it?
- When should it start?
- What it covers
- Hospice vs. palliative care
- Summary
Hospice care teams provide people with comfortable care if they have a life-limiting illness.
If a disease has no cure, hospice care becomes a care option. When people face the end of their lives, the shift from healing treatments can be challenging and distressing.
Hospice care is for people who are in the final stages of an incurable illness. The aim is to ensure they are comfortable, and able to live their last days as fully as possible.
Hospice care professionals do not cure diseases. Instead, they treat a person’s symptoms to improve their quality of life. They also aim to include family members and caregivers in decisions that affect a person’s care.
People can receive hospice care within the following settings:
•at home
•in the hospital
•at an extended care facility, such as a nursing home
Hospice care begins when an illness becomes so advanced it is no longer curable, and it is not possible to control it.
A qualified hospice doctor and a person’s primary care doctor need to certify whether they meet the criteria for hospice care. It may be time for hospice care if a person:
•has fewer than 6 months to live
•is not seeing improvements to their health after treatment, and their quality of life rapidly declines
•decides to stop treatments to prolong their life
A person may live longer than 6 months and continue to receive hospice care, if a doctor recertifies them.
Hospice care includes the following:
•symptom control and management, also known as palliative care
•pain management
•stress management and other mental health support
•spiritual support
•family support
According to a 2019 survey, many people have misperceptions about what palliative and hospice care involves. While there is some overlap between the two, they are not the same.
Both types of care manage symptoms and address other important psychosocial needs, to improve a person’s quality of life.
However, while palliative care often goes hand in hand with curative treatment, hospice care does not. If a person has a serious illness, they may sometimes receive palliative care.
Hospice care takes place when someone with a serious illness nears the end of their life. The care they receive is designed solely to ease their symptoms, and minimize any complications of the disease.
Besides this, palliative care teams are separate from the leading medical care team that provides treatment for a person’s illness. Hospice care teams, on the other hand, coordinate the majority of a person’s care.
Learn more about palliative care here.
For people who face the end stages of a terminal illness, hospice care can help ease pain, discomfort, and other symptoms. This type of care can help people live their final days as fully and comfortably as possible.
While they treat symptoms, hospice care teams also communicate with family members and provide 24/7 support. They also help terminally ill people and their loved ones make difficult decisions regarding end-of-life care.
Long-term care facility. Many nursing homes and long-term care homes have hospice units with trained staff. These units are for people who don't have a caregiver at home. Or for people who may need medical services that can't be done at home. Independent hospices. Some home care hospices are run as an independent business.
When a loved one is facing a near end-of-life illness, hospice care provides comfort and support. At Johns Hopkins Care at Home, we collaborate with hospice groups to connect you with the right option. We also provide hospice medical equipment in your home or at a long-term-care facility or hospice center.
