Once a terminal diagnosis is given by the doctor, when can hospice can be called in? When the patient is expected to live less than six months.
I hear often that many people think you only call in hospice during the last couple of weeks of someone's life. Often, their loved one suffers needlessly, and the family lacks the support they could have had with a good hospice team at their side.
I've known people who have gone on hospice care more than once. They beat their disease back for a time, went off hospice care and lived decently for awhile, then called hospice once more when the symptoms returned. This is not highly unusual.
Paying for Hospice Care
Most health insurance covers hospice care. Medicare covers hospice care. At this time, anyone declared medically terminal, with six months or less to live, is qualified to call on hospice for care.
Hospice will come to wherever the patient calls home, whether it's a residential home, an assisted living center or a nursing home.
Hospice also works as the palliative care team in many hospitals, so if a terminal person is hospitalized and will be more comfortable in the palliative care unit than a room where "cure" is the only language spoken, then the palliative care unit is most likely where the person will be cared for. Palliative care simply means caring for people who are dying by keeping them as comfortable as possible.
Again, this implies an acceptance of impending death.
No One Needs to Die in Pain
One well-used hospice motto is, "No one needs to die in pain." That is the essence of palliative care. So, why wait until someone has suffered months before calling in hospice?
Yes, the person dying, and the family, have to come to grips with impending death, but most of us would rather die with relative comfort than in agony, and if that means coming to grips with reality in order to make this possible, then I'd recommend working on that. A spiritual leader can often help families get to this point of acceptance.
Once acceptance is reached - at least enough acceptance to pick up the phone and call your local hospice - you will likely find that their expertise and compassion will help all of you internalize this acceptance and come to terms with the reality of death, which is something we all must, one day, face.
The compassionate care of our hospice allowed my family to have quality time with our parents during their last months. Hospice care allowed us to be present as Dad and Mom passed out of this world, in peace. Since my parents were going to die no matter what I did, I couldn't ask for more.
Elder care author, columnist and speaker Carol Bradley Bursack is an AgingCare.com contributing editor and moderator of the
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Read her full biography