There are still many diseases against which our systems of medicine are unable to grapple with. But at least modern medicine can help mitigate a person from suffering in his or her last days. It is for this reason that hospices exist.
What exactly is hospice? Let’s try to answer this question!
Hospice care is provided to accommodate and keep comfortable people suffering from severe and incurable ailments. Such ailments include, for example, terminal cancer.
In a narrow sense, the term “hospice” refers to a separate care unit devised for terminally ill people. In a facilitiy-based setting, a separate building or wing offers certain benefits to patients. For example, relatives may be allowed round-the-clock visits, and recreational activities are provided for the sick. In home hospice care, nurses, social workers, and other care providers coordinate with the terminally ill person’s family to maximize comfort and quality of life in the place where the ill person wants to be – their home!
In today’s society, many people do not understand why hospices are needed. This is especially because many of the terminal diseases are non-communicable – for example, cancer. However, just because there is not a risk of spreading infection, this does not mean people do not need alleviation from great pain and suffering. Many diseases cause extreme suffering, which can only be mitigated by an experienced specialist. These are the specialists who work in hospices. In essence, hospice care delivery will enable a person to be spared from the suffering caused by illness. Thanks to the hospice protocol, the last days of a sick person’s life will be oritented toward as much joy as possible.
Why is a hospice different?
If a hospital is multidisciplinary, including a department for the terminally ill, it is not formally considered a hospice – it will be a palliative department. Their relatives will not be allowed to live with the sick person or come at any time. It will be difficult to agree on leisure activities for patients: if operations are performed in the same hospital, outsiders can introduce an infection. It will definitely not be possible to organize some kind of holiday for the patients of the palliative department.
In many instances, hospice care is done in the home today. Hillside Hospice is a perfect example of a home-based hospice provide that delivers the highest quality of hospice care to terminally ill patients. This is the case because terminally-ill patients want their last days in their own homes whenever possible. Being cared for at home increases their happiness substantially. However, when such at-home hospice care is not possible for a terminal patient due to circumstantial or logistical constraints, facility-based hospices become a concrete option for care provision. These facilities differ from ordinary hospital rooms in that they maximally attempt to establish a home-like environment. Places like this don’t look like hospital wards or even palliative units, where visitors cannot be present round-the-clock and may attempt to improve the patient’s condition via procedural intervetions. On the contrary, everything has been done so that a person feels at home and can spend the last days of his life, if not at home, then at least close to it. As a rule, a hospice ward is practically no different from an ordinary room in an apartment. Undoubtedly, this is a huge plus for people who are going to spend their last days in a hospice facility.
Conclusion
It should be noted that hospice is needed not only by people who suffer from an incurable disease but also by their relatives. Naturally, most people do not have a formal medical education, and therefore, they cannot clinically remove the suffering of their relatives. In fact, many family members begin to blame themselves for their inability to mitigate their loved one’s suffering. In addition, not all people have time to care for a sick relative, especially when other family and professional responsibilities loom throughout the day. In such instances, if you do not have the time and knowledge, then it is better to entrust the care of your relative to a professional hospice team.
The Hillside Hospice team is extremely accommodating and ready to take care of your loved ones the way you want. At Hillside Hospice, compassionately caring for the terminally ill is our expertise.
