• What is Hospice? - Hospice care provides comfort measures and supportive services to the terminally ill and their families. Hospice care includes medical, emotional, social, and spiritual support to those in the last stages of their life as well as their family. Hospice care relies on the combined knowledge and skills of physicians, nurses, home health aides, social workers, clergy and volunteers.

 

• What is Palliative Care? - Palliative care individualized comfort care designed to improve the quality of life for patients who have life-limiting disease, in which the focus is on relieving rather than curing the symptoms. The main goal of palliative care is to help people who are terminally ill to live more comfortably. Palliative care:
  
  - Provides pain relief
  - Offers a support system to help patients live comfortably.
  - Offers a support system to help the family cope during the patients’sillness and in their own bereavement.
  - Will enhance quality of life and influence the course of the illness

 

• How do I choose a Hospice? - Hospice agencies may offer many different services for families and the terminally ill patient. The supportive, comforting, and enlightened staff that specialize in hospice care provide services that enhance the life of those in their care. Hospice care addresses issues of dignity and comfort. The best way to choose a hospice agency is to ask questions. Some questions that might help you determine if a hospice program is right for you are:

- What types of care does the hospice provide?
- Is there an RN available 24 hours a day?
- How often will hospice see the patient?
- What support services does the hospice provide?
- What support services does the hospice provide after the loved one dies?