Treatment in Hospice

What is hospice care?

Hospice provides medical services, emotional and spiritual support to people in the last stages of fatal diseases such as cancer or heart failure. Hospice also helps family members cope with the practical issues and emotional challenges of caring for a dying a close person.

The goal of hospice care is to maintain the comfort and quality of life of the dying patient. The main idea is to retreat from the usual medical treatments when doctors are making an effort to cure disease. Hospice services are not intended to speed up or prolong the process of dying, they focus on relieving pain and other symptoms. People caring for patients at the hospice, are engaged in improving the quality of remaining life, keeping your activity and comfort as much as possible, surrounded by family members and friends.

What services does a hospice?

Hospice services mainly include:

• Basic health care, with emphasis on pain relief and symptoms.
• Medical maintenance and equipment as needed.
• Counseling and social support to help you and your family with psychological, emotional and spiritual problems.
• Support in solving complex, but the usual problems in the final stage of life.
• Caring for the sick, at a time when nurses, family members and other people who usually take care of the patients, no.
• Counselling and support to relatives after the death of the patient.

Who provides hospice services?

Most of the time nursing care is carried out at home. Basically for the patient cares the family. Also, someone from the medical staff visits the patient several times a week. Thus, the patient's family cooperates with the personnel of the hospice to provide him with the best possible care.

Hospice Programs offer services 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, at your home or in a hospice. Some hospices also offer services in nursing homes, medical institutions for the chronically ill and hospitals.

Hospice staff typically includes doctors and nurses, social workers, spiritual counselors, junior nurses and volunteers. It may also include pharmacists, specialists in mechanical ventilation, psychologists, psychiatrists, physiotherapists and occupational therapists, and others.

Indications for hospice programs are based on two criteria:

• Your disease is considered incurable. This is called the deadly disease.
• Your doctor has determined that your life expectancy of 6 months or less if your disease will develop as well.