Common Misconceptions About Hospice Care
The word "hospice" can strike fear in the hearts of an ill person's loved ones because it forces them to face their loved one's death. However, there are many misconceptions about hospice care that contribute to this fear. Read on to learn about misconceptions about hospice family care versus the reality.
Hospice Is a Place
There are facilities that provide hospice care, but hospice is more of a philosophy than a place. Someone taking advantage of hospice care has chosen to neither prolong life nor hasten death. Instead, they've chosen to have the best quality of life possible for the time they have remaining. Many patients receiving hospice care remain at home.
Hospice Patients Are Heavily Sedated
The goal of a hospice caregiver is to help the patient remain alert, but pain-free. The patient should be able to communicate with visitors and understand what is happening, but they should also be completely comfortable. Hospice caregivers are adept at pain management and don't have to keep patients unconscious to keep them comfortable.
Although pain management is an important goal of hospice workers, it isn't the only one. Caregivers will provide medications that manage the symptoms of the patient's condition; provide emotional support to the patient and his or her family; facilitate communication between the patient, his or her caregivers, and his or her family to make sure needs are being met; and provide non-pharmaceutical therapy, like art or music therapy.
Hospice Care Means Death Is Imminent
For a patient to go into hospice care, he or she must have a condition that, if untreated, will lead to death in no more than six months. Hospice care doesn't always start when the patient only has a few days left to live. In fact, the sooner a patient decides to stop life-prolonging treatment and accept hospice care, the easier it will be for caregivers to manage the patient's pain.
Choosing Hospice Care Is an Irreversible Decision
Patients in hospice care always have the right to change their mind. If after they receive hospice care for a while, they decide they'd prefer to receive life-prolonging treatment, the hospice caregivers will turn care over to a hospital or will step back to allow the patient's physician to have a larger role in his or her care. Occasionally, a patient who seems on death's door and enters hospice care will begin to improve. In these cases, patients will no longer receive hospice care and can begin seeing their regular doctor again.
Often the understanding that hospice care is a healthcare philosophy that patients can embrace or reject as they see fit is enough to help patients and families seek the care that is right for them.