When something life-changing like terminal illness occurs in someone’s life, directly or indirectly, we don’t always know why it’s happening to us. Instead of stressing over that, what becomes more important and can offer more help in our healing —spiritually and mentally — is to take that same energy of perplexity and shift its focus […]
Healing Touches for Hospice Patients and Their Families
Pain can take on several different dimensions including physiological (the actual physical sensation and the person’s accompanying response), cognitive (patients who might anticipate pain based on memories of when they had pain in the past), and emotional. Hospice is about providing comfort and dignity at the end-of-life and so it’s not uncommon for hospices to […]
Music and Art Therapy as Pain Control in Hospice
Music Therapy, also known as Expressive Therapy, is one of two types of complementary and alternative medicine that have shown to be beneficial for hospice patients for pain control and reducing agitation, depression, and improving their overall quality of life. Similarly, art therapy has demonstrated improvements in pain, fatigue, anxiety, and depression among palliative care […]
Holding Space
Whether you’re a caregiver or a health care practitioner, the importance of holding space for the person who’s dying is enormously important. It allows the patient to be able to spend their remaining time in a level of quality end-of-life care that includes non-judgment, allowing explorations of the life they’ve lived and the time that’s […]
Hospice Photography Creates Legacy for Families
Scenes from a loved one’s final days can be moving and meaningful. Several professional photographers have been expanding their portfolios of weddings, graduations, and other larger family events to include end-of-life photography for terminal patients. One example is Shannon MacFarlane of Tacoma, Washington, who has worked exclusively as a “bereavement photographer” since 2013. MacFarlane uses […]
Getting Discharged from Hospice
It’s normal for a hospice to release a small portion of patients before death – about 15% has been typical, but research from some new for-profit companies showed the rate of patients leaving hospice care alive is double that level or more and has risen in recent years. Patients who are not near death are […]
Pediatric Hospice: A Special Kind of Care Part 2
In addition to the physical, spiritual, and emotional effects of dealing with a terminal illness, there’s also the barrage of outside stressors – things like medical bills, insurance claims, and the logistics of taking care of healthy children while still being there for the one who is hospitalized or sick at home. There may also […]
Pediatric Hospice: A Special Kind of Care Part 1
Pediatric hospice care targets children from birth to 21 years of age and is used for a range of diagnoses including cancer, heart conditions, lung diseases, neurological disorders, and premature birth. Care can begin as soon as a diagnosis is made, be provided throughout treatment and follow-up, and continue until the final moments of life. Studies have […]
The Right Time for Hospice
Waiting too long to use hospice care can make suffering at end-of-life worse. When is it the right time? Anyone with a terminal illness who is faced with choosing quality over quantity of their life should be having honest and ongoing discussions about their goals with their physicians and loved ones. Hospice itself is not […]
Choosing the Right Hospice for You
If your community has more than one hospice organization, how do you know which one is right for you? How can you know anything about them? One way to find out is by calling the hospices in your area and finding out about the services they offer. You can call the National Hospice and Palliative […]
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