Hospice Care Keeps Your Loved One at Home for the Holidays
Hospice and Palliative Care can help you keep your loved one at home during the holidays.
As the song goes: “There’s no place like home for the holidays.” Surrounded by family and friends, celebrating the season, sharing meals and memories – home is where the heart is.
Many times, people put off making the decision about getting hospice care until after the holidays, when instead they should do just the opposite. Hospice care can help your loved one stay at home in the center of family activities while managing their pain and symptoms for improved quality of life. Additionally, early admission to hospice care is the key to realizing more of the benefits that this type of care provides the patient and family.
Care that helps keep your loved one at home
Hospice care is provided wherever someone calls home. The goal of hospice care is to manage pain and symptoms to improve quality of life. It does not hasten death, and studies show it can even prolong life when patients are admitted early in the disease process. Having a care team to call on any time, day or night, can help prevent you from making stressful trips to the Emergency Room and keep your loved one comfortably at home.
Care that relieves stress
The holidays are stressful enough. Hospice care can help alleviate certain stressors by making sure your loved one is clean and comfortable. A Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) helps with hygiene tasks like bathing to help keep your loved one feeling clean. Volunteers can provide companionship and respite, which can help reduce stress while you are busy with holiday preparations.
Care that comforts
Having an interdisciplinary care team (physician, nurse, CNA, social worker, chaplain, and volunteer) provides not only care for your loved one but is also a support system for the whole family. They can help you deal with emotional stress, while they provide clear information about your loved one’s care and prognosis. Chaplains can provide spiritual care at home, which patients who are home-bound will find comforting at this time of year.
Care that is covered
Hospice care, including hospice-related medications and supplies, is covered by Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance plans. If you do not have a reimbursement source, don’t worry. Lower Cape Fear LifeCare never refuses care based on ability to pay.
Care that is continual
If your loved one’s pain and symptoms cannot be managed at home, Lower Cape Fear LifeCare (formerly Lower Cape Fear Hospice) is the only regional hospice provider that operates inpatient hospice care centers, making transitioning to acute care quick and easy. These home-like facilities offer large rooms to accommodate family, and a shared kitchen where food can always be found. These rooms are your home-away-from-home, and personal touches are not only permissible but encouraged.
Care that is trusted
Lower Cape Fear LifeCare is the area’s oldest and most experienced hospice provider, caring for more than 850 patients and their families every day. Many clinical team members have earned specialized certification in hospice and palliative care. We are dedicated to providing the highest level of quality care and support and it shows. Feel free to see how we stack up against other hospices in our region, as rated by caregivers, at Medicare’s Hospice Compare website. (due to our recent name change, please look for us as Lower Cape Fear Hospice)
You don’t have to do this alone. Let us provide the care and support your family needs. Be supported this holiday season.
You have questions, we have answers. Call us at 1-800-733-1476 to find out more.
