I was at the medical center near my home when the administrator of my mother’s board and care introduce the word “hospice” to me. In her gentle way, she was getting me acquainted with the term. I had heard the word before. It was used for situations that wouldn’t have a positive outcome. Just hearing her say hospice made me afraid.

She and I were in the doctor’s office with my mom. That’s when mom’s doctor told us that “everything medically that could be done was being done. The truth is,” the doctor said, gesturing toward my 89-year-old mother, “we are moving in the direction of comfort care.”

For some 10 years, my mother has suffered from Alzheimer’s disease. She passed away from the disease some 18 months later. Since that day at the doctor’s, I have learned a lot about hospice care. The most important lesson I’ve learned is that having hospice intervention for my mom didn’t mean that I had given up on her. It meant that I involved a level of care designed to improve her quality of life, even at its end. It meant that I wanted her to receive optimal physical and emotional comfort and that she wouldn’t be in pain.

What Is Hospice
Hospice dates back to medieval times when travelers, the sick, wounded or dying would seek a place for rest and comfort. Today, hospice offers a comprehensive program of care to patients and families facing a life-threatening illness. Hospice is primarily a concept of care, not a specific place of care. Hospice emphasizes palliative rather than curative treatment; quality rather than quantity of life. Its goal is to relieve and soothe the symptoms of a disease or disorder without effecting a cure.

Who’s Involved

Hospice care involves teamwork between the caregivers and the family. Working with the patient and the patient’s family, a care plan is outlined. Emotional, spiritual and practical support are given based on the patient’s wishes and family’s needs. The hospice physician, nurses, aids social workers, clergy, volunteers and other professionals work together to ease the difficulties and uncertainties of the dying process.

How to Decide

At any time during a life-limiting illness, it’s appropriate to discuss all of a patient’s care options, including hospice. By law, the decision belongs to the patient. If your loved one is unable to make medical decisions, a relative or friend must have a durable power of attorney for health care issues to be able to authorize any medical-related services.

The requirements to be hospice appropriate include:

• The patient must be diagnosed with a terminal illness by a physician;
• Because of the illness, the patient is considered to have a life expectancy of six months or less, if the disease runs it normal course.
• Patient must sign a statement acknowledging that they choose hospice treatment over curative treatment for their terminal illness.

Understandably, most people are uncomfortable with the idea of stopping aggressive efforts to “beat” the disease.