Hospice Care

[Pages:1]Senior Resource Center, Inc., 912 Princess Anne Road, Virginia Beach, VA 23457

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Hospice Care

At our Sept. 30th lecture, we learned what hospice is and how beneficial it is. Hospice care is still not wellknown or well-utilized by too many of us, so it's helpful to become familiar with it before you may need it. It's covered by most insurances and is available to those with a 6 month or less prognosis, who no longer want active, curative care. Its aim is to keep patients comfortable and to provide support to families and caregivers emotionally, psychologically and spiritually. It can be provided in the person's home or in a residential facility. It does require a doctor's order, and nursing agencies that provide hospice services can help obtain that. Doctors don't always initiate the conversation about using hospice, so you may need to become proactive and ask about it.

Since most of us sooner or later are dealing with a loved one or close friend who is nearing the end of life, the following article may be of great help.

How to Find the Right Words for Someone in Hospice Care

by Ms. Kevyn Burger and Shary Farr at 3/16/19

Appropriate greeting cards are tough to find, so here's advice from end-of-life experts. Professor Elizabeth Bergman has advice for friends, neighbors, family members and coworkers who want to send a final, poignant message: Mail cards, but choose them carefully. "Please don't send a `get well' card," pleads Bergman. By its very definition, hospice is for patients who will not get well. Patients

Newsletter ? October 2019

enter hospice when they and their medical team agree that curative measures have been exhausted and the focus shifts to comfort care. The transition to hospice can be very challenging. It means confronting that this is the end of a person's life and that can create conflict in families, where one faction supports hospice and the other wants medical intervention to continue. A `get well' card can unintentionally exacerbate an already tense situation.

While more Americans are likely to have a relationship with someone who chooses hospice, Bergman expresses frustration that commercial greeting card companies have not created thoughtful and sensitive cards specifically for these patients. "Friends worry

that they will say the wrong thing or that what they say will not be received in the way it was intended, so they don't send a card or write a note at all," she says. "It's too bad. There's no second chance for these connections."

Suggestions for Handwritten Messages Suggestions for handwritten messages include: "Your beautiful smile always brings so much joy," "Just wanted to write and say hi", "I'm thinking about you and how much I admire you'" or "Everyone is thinking of you." When a dying person is aware and conscious, they are often inclined to go over their lives. Receiving kind words can support that process and help them realize the ripple they've made in the world. It can help them be at peace. We assume people know what they mean to us, but they don't. This is the time to acknowledge the beauty or gentleness or humor or significance that they brought to us. It's a real gift to them.

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