Pike County Hospice Raises Awareness during Hospice and Palliative Care Month
November 14, 2011.....Coping with a serious or life-limiting illness is not easy. In fact, it might be the hardest work you’ll ever do. Working with doctors and hospitals, navigating the maze of care needs, figuring out insurance coverage, all in addition to taking care of your family can be overwhelming. Pike County Hospice wants the community to know that there’s help.
Hospice and palliative care providers take the time to talk with you and help you understand your illness and what care options might be available. They make your wishes a priority and make sure you get the care you want and deserve.
"We’re working hard all year round to make sure people know that support, comfort and respect are available at a time when hope seems out of reach," said Heather Betts, Hospice Coordinator. "Yet during November, we ramp up our efforts to raise awareness of the high-quality care that’s available during one of life’s most challenging times."
Hospice care provides expert pain management, symptom control, psycho-social support and spiritual care to patients and families when a cure is not possible. All the necessary medicines and equipment needed to keep a patient comfortable can be brought right to the home, which is where most Americans would like to be if at all possible. Hospice makes this happen.
Palliative care brings these same skilled services earlier in the course of an illness and can be provided along with other treatments a patient may want to pursue. Many people don’t realize that hospices are the largest providers of palliative care services in the US.
More than 1.5 million people with a life-limiting illness get help from the nation’s hospice and palliative care providers every single year.
"It’s about quality of life. With the help of hospice and palliative care, patients and families can focus on what’s most important, living as fully as possible in spite of illness." Betts said.
"There’s an inaccurate perception among the American public that hospice means you’ve given up," said J. Donald Schumacher, president and CEO of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization. "Those of us who have worked in the field have seen firsthand how hospice and palliative care can improve the quality of life. And there’s a growing body of research showing that hospice and palliative care may prolong the lives of some people who receive care."
For additional information on hospice and palliative care, please contact Pike County Hospice at (573) 324-2111.
NHPCO’s Caring Connections offers free information and resources at www.caringinfo.org or via the HelpLine at 800-658-8898.