5 Benefits Of Hospice Care

If your elderly parent or other loved one has been diagnosed with a terminal illness, you may be wondering if hospice care is the right decision for the situation at hand. Most people know very little about the type of care involved in hospice settings, but once they begin to understand what is involved, they realize that it can be a good decision for many patients, their caregivers, and their families. Following are five major advantages of receiving hospice care.

Patients Receive Emotional Support

Because hospice care focuses on the whole patient, rather than only the physical aspects of the illness, patients receive a significance amount of emotional support. The supportive environment provided by hospice care substantially increases the patient's quality of life by reducing anxiety and stress.

Caregivers Receive Emotional Support

Hospice care recognizes that caregiver stress is a very real problem that can have a highly negative impact on everyone involved. Caregivers who become overly tired and stressed may make poor decisions, and patients may experience feelings of guilt when the anxiety levels of their caregivers is high. One of the main goals of hospice care is to ensure that caregiver stress levels remain as low as possible.

Hospice Care Provides an Entire Team

Instead of just one primary physician, hospice care utilizes an entire team of professionals, determined by the patient's individual needs and preferences. The patient's care plan is evaluated on a daily basis and amended accordingly as the need arises. Although the patient's primary physician continues to play an active role in treatment, the hospice team works in tandem with the doctor to meet the needs of the whole person. Nutrition experts, massage therapists, nurses, social workers and pharmacists are examples of the professionals who make up a hospice care team.

Hospice Care Provides Pain Relief

Pain management and relief is an important part of hospice care. After all, the main objective is to help the patient have the best possible quality of life during the time that he or she has left. This means using state-of-the-art pain management techniques, as well as the latest advances in pharmaceutical medicine.

Hospice Care is Covered By Most Insurance Policies

The majority of private insurance companies as well as Medicare and Medicaid cover hospice care, from a clinic like Marlette Regional Hospital, although policy limits may apply in some cases. Economically disadvantaged patients may qualify for subsidized care in some hospice programs.