What Hospice Care Can Do for Your Loved One

When you think of hospice care, you may not have the full picture in your head of what it means and what it can offer your loved one and their family. This type of specialized care is tailored to patients with terminal illnesses, with the goal of providing comfort and improving the patient’s quality of life. Hospice care provides a full complement of medically driven comfort and symptom management, but is not curative care, which is care to cure an illness.

If you’re considering hospice care for a loved one, and are curious about what it involves and how it can help, below is some information to get you started:

Specialized Care Plan – If your loved one is in hospice care, they will have a team of healthcare professionals work with them and their family to come up with a care plan that best suits your loved one’s wants and needs. The doctor will help to determine the plan of care, and the nurses and aides will monitor your loved one’s condition, administer medication, assist with basic personal care needs and address other symptoms. There is typically an on-call nurse who will be available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, as well as, depending on your loved one’s needs, other healthcare professionals such as physical, occupational and speech therapists.

Care Location Options – When considering hospice care, it’s important to know this type of care is most often carried out in your loved one’s home environment, but it can also be received at a facility such as a hospital, long-term care residence or free-standing hospice facility. To give you some examples of your options, our in-home hospice care and inpatient hospice care locations are listed below.

For patients wishing to stay in their own familiar surroundings, in-home hospice care can help:

• Good Samaritan Hospice
• Concordia Hospice of Washington

For patients who cannot remain in their own homes, inpatient hospice care can help:

• Good Samaritan Hospice House in Wexford
• Good Samaritan Hospice Unit at Concordia at Cabot
• Good Samaritan Hospice Unit at Heritage Valley Beaver Hospital
• Concordia Hospice of Washington Donnell House Hospice Facility in Washington County

Spiritual Care Services – Another way hospice care can help your loved one is by providing spiritual care services to them and their family. Faithful caring can address the emotional and religious needs of individuals regardless of their beliefs, and usually involves the support of chaplains or other spiritual care counselors. There are many reasons patients choose to receive spiritual care, such as to help them come to peace with a critical or terminal illness or to receive emotional support with their hopes, uncertainties or fears. Depending on your loved one’s wants and needs, they, as well as their family, may benefit from this service offered as part of their hospice care plan.

Medical Equipment – Many hospice patients receive care in their homes, and to make sure their environment is as safe and comfortable as possible, medical equipment can be provided.  Some examples of common equipment provided for in-home care are hospital beds, wheelchairs, breathing machines, lifts, walkers and blood pressure monitors. Each patient has individualized needs and requirements, and the equipment provided is tailored to meet those needs.

Hospice care can help in many ways – including physically, spiritually and emotionally – and may be an option for a loved one who is in need of specialized health care due to a terminal illness. You can read more about the types of hospice care here: 4 Types of Hospice Care.

If you and your family are in need of hospice care, Good Samaritan Hospice, a mission of Concordia, and Concordia Hospice of Washington are ready to show you how our quality hospice care can make a difference in your life. Call us toll free at 1-800-720-2557, or contact us any time via our online contact form. If you have a question about how we can help your loved one or if you want to learn more about the different services we offer, you may also visit the care levels & services page of our website for details on a number of services we offer including In-Home Care, Long-Term Nursing Care, Adult Day Services, and more.