End-of-life care is not something
anyone wants to think about. Even
doctors have been hesitant in the past
to bring up hospice care simply because
they don’t want the patients and/or
their families to feel they have given up
hope. But this misconception and lack
of information about services available
through hospice and palliative care have
caused many to be unprepared and
overwhelmed in a time that is already
difficult. “It’s clinically proven that
hospice and palliative care provides a
much higher quality of life in someone’s
journey who is dealing with advanced
illness,” said Jason. “Hospice doesn’t
mean it’s the end, and you’re giving up.
It means you’re not alone and you have
a team of compassionate, caring people
you can call on anytime day or night.”
“According to estimates from
the National Alliance for Caregiving,
during the past year, 65.7 million
Americans (or 29 percent of the U.S.
adult population involving 31 percent
of all U.S. households) served as family
caregivers for an ill or disabled relative,”
reports the American Psychological
32 TOOMBS COUNTY MAGAZINE
Association (apa.org). And that number
is expected to rise as baby boomers
make up more and more of the aging
population.
The concept for hospice care
actually began in the late 1940s with
a British physician by the name of
Dame Cicely Saunders who worked
with terminally ill patients as a
nurse (and later as a physician) in
the United Kingdom. According to
understandhospice.org, “In 1963, during
a talk at Yale University in the U.S.,
Dr. Saunders introduced the idea of
specialized care for the dying, which
centered on palliative care rather
than treatments to cure.” Pictures she
presented of terminally ill patients
before and after receiving hospice care
“began the discussion in the U.S. of
providing hospice care to patients at
the end of life.” Dr. Sanders would go
on to establish the first hospice for the
terminally ill in the United Kingdom in
1967 called St. Christopher Hospice.
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, a Swiss-
American psychiatrist, took the
conversation to a whole new level
with her book published in 1969
entitled On Death and Dying. The book
contained over 500 interviews with
patients in their final stages of life. In
her book, Dr. Kubler-Ross “emphasizes
the benefits of home care over
treatment in an institutional setting
for terminally ill patients,” according
to understandinghospice.org. “In 1972,
Kubler-Ross testified before the US
Senate Special Committee on Aging
about the right to die with dignity, a
big part of which is the right to make
decisions about one’s end-of-life care
and to die at home.”
Dr. Florence Wald, a nurse and
Dean of the Yale School of Nursing,
“took a sabbatical in 1968 to work at St.
Christopher’s in London to experience
hospice first hand,” (callhospice.org). In
1974, she founded the first hospice in
Branford, Connecticut, along with two
pediatricians and a chaplain. In 1982,
President Ronald Reagan signed into
law the Medicare Hospice benefit to
enable Americans and their families to
receive quality end-of-life care. Hospice
care is also covered by Medicaid and
many private health insurance plans.
“For the first time since the early
1900s, more Americans are dying at
home rather than in hospitals, a trend
that reflects more hospice care and
progress toward the kind of end that
most people say they want,” explains a
December 12, 2019 article posted on
cbs.com. Dying at home is not about less
medical attention, but about choosing
the environment in which medical
attention is given.
From the wealthiest of the wealthy
to the poorest of the poor, death comes
in one form or another to us all. But
with places like Community Hospice,
there are more choices for how and
where the last stage of life with our
loved ones is spent. Caring for a loved
one can be overwhelming. According
to a 2015 research report entitled,
FAR LEFT Community Hospice provides
a peaceful, comfortable atmosphere and
tries to make every patient feel important.
Sometimes that means going to extremes.
In this case, a patient in hospice care had
a love of horses and wanted to see one
again before her illness overcame her.
/(apa.org
/understandhospice.org
/understandinghospice.org
/(callhospice.org
/cbs.com