People facing a fatal illness often find their fears and pain exacerbated by lack of control -- with doctors poking and prodding and treating and testing even as the end grows near. Hospice care, however, can give back some control over someone's final days through its compassionate focus on treating pain and helping both the dying person and the person's family emotionally grapple with what's … [Read more...]

Losing someone close to you can make you feel sad, lost, alone, and maybe even angry. You greatly miss the person who has died—you want them back. You might have also been so busy with caregiving that it now seems you have nothing to do. This can add to your feelings of loss. This is all part of grieving, a normal reaction to the loss of someone you love. There are many ways to grieve and to … [Read more...]

At the end of life, each story is different. Death comes suddenly, or a person lingers, gradually failing. For some older people, the body weakens while the mind stays alert. Others remain physically strong, and cognitive losses take a huge toll. But for everyone, death is inevitable, and each loss is personally felt by those close to the one who has died. End-of-life care is the term used to … [Read more...]

You may have heard of a new medical term- Palliative care (pronounced PAH-LEE-UH-TIVE). For the last thirty years, palliative care has been provided by hospice programs for dying Americans. Currently these programs serve more than 1 million patients and their families each year. Now this very same approach to care is being used by other health care providers, including teams in hospitals, … [Read more...]

Comfort care is an essential part of medical care at the end of life. It is care that helps or soothes a person who is dying. The goal is to prevent or relieve suffering as much as possible while respecting the dying person’s wishes. You are probably reading this because someone close to you is dying. Is it a parent or grandparent, your husband or wife, a favorite aunt or uncle, your best … [Read more...]

Comfort care is an essential part of medical care at the end of life. It is care that helps or soothes a person who is dying. The goal is to prevent or relieve suffering as much as possible while respecting the dying person’s wishes. You are probably reading this because someone close to you is dying. Is it a parent or grandparent, your husband or wife, a favorite aunt or uncle, your best … [Read more...]

It can be overwhelming to be asked to make health care decisions for someone who is dying and no longer able to make his or her own decisions. It is even more difficult if you do not have written or even verbal guidance. How do you decide what type of care is right for someone? Even when you have written documents, some decisions still might not be clear. Two approaches might be useful. One is … [Read more...]

As they reach the end of life, people suffering from conditions like Alzheimer's disease (AD) or Parkinson's disease can present special problems for caregivers. People live with these diseases for years, becoming increasingly disabled. Because they do not die soon after they are diagnosed, it can be hard to think of these as terminal diseases. But they do contribute to death. Illnesses like … [Read more...]

When death comes suddenly, there is little time to prepare. On the other hand, watching an older person become increasingly frail may mean that it's hard to know when the end of life begins because changes can happen so slowly. But if you do know death is approaching and understand what will happen, then you do have a chance to plan. Listen carefully to what doctors and nurses are saying. They may … [Read more...]

Contact: Debbie Mosbacher 832.408.7999 The vast majority of Americans say what they want at the end of life is to die in their own homes, as comfortable and pain free as possible. The hospice philosophy is about making sure that a patient's experience reflects their wishes.Here are five ways that hospice helps to deliver this: Accredited Hospices of America gives you comfort. Hospices are … [Read more...]