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In hospice care, patients receive treatments aimed at the symptoms of a disease, not a cure for the disease. The most common problem and goal directly associated with hospice care is reducing pain, while maintaining a reasonable level of alertness in the patient. In this way, the patient is afforded as much dignity and quality of life as possible. This philosophy of medicine accepts that death is the final stage of life. Unfortunately, this type of care is poorly understood by the general public. Before the specific issues that come up during home hospice care, it's necessary to address some of the most common myths associated with hospice care.

Hospice Care Myths

• Hospice care is a death sentence. This is probably the biggest myth surrounding hospice care. Hospice care neither hastens nor postpones death. It treats the person, rather than the illness, and focuses on quality of life, rather than the length of life. Yet, if the disease shows signs of retreat, if the cancer goes into remission, chemotherapy or other curative treatments can be administered again.
• Hospice care means you will die in a hospital. Hospice care can occur in any number of health care facilities—hospitals, nursing homes, private hospice care centers—but most hospice care in the United States is administered in the home. In some situations, a trip or stay in the hospital may be necessary to maintain a high level of palliative (quality of life) care. Still, if an individual wishes to stay in the home, alternate arrangements can be made. Moreover, good hospice care will significantly reduce the chance of hospitalization during end-of-life. Nursing home residents who receive hospice care are half as likely to be hospitalized. Well-designed home hospice care should create similar reductions in the need for hospitalization.
• Hospice care must be administered by a health care professional. One of the most important aspects of good hospice care is planning at the outset of the care. Comprehensive hospice care is usually offered and accepted by the family, including doctors, nurses, social workers, counselors, therapists, and clergy, but most hands-on hospice care is still often administered by a family member.

Home Hospice Care
Home hospice care is almost always an option, but it does require extensive planning, often more planning than institutional care. On the other hand, the best hospice care setting is usually in the home, where the dying patient feels most comfortable and able to come to terms with the spiritual aspects of dying. Home hospice care frequently involves significant alterations to the living arrangements of the household. If the home lacks a spacious master bedroom, the hospice bed may need to be located in a living room or some other room that affords sufficient space to efficiently administer palliative care.

It's also important to realize that, with very few exceptions, hospice care requires 24/7 care, whether administered in a home or in a separate facility. Many families choose members of the family to administer hospice care, but you can hire home health aides or find trained volunteers to take care of this for you. Obviously, most cases call for a combination of the two, and it's important to discuss how different aspects of home hospice care will be assigned to different health care resources.

JRougeou When my 43 year old husband had cancer, we used hospice. It was a blessing to us. We lived out of state from our family, so their help and knowledge was so helpful.
Sun Dec 19, 2010, 8:16:26 PM EST

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