End of Lifecare for the patient & their loved ones
When a loved one is facing a life-limiting illness, you and your family want to do whatever you can to ensure he or she gets the very best care.
Hospice provides palliative care at the end of life. Death and suffering are an inevitable part of the shared human experience. The desire for dignity, regardless of one’s socioeconomic status, is a common need. Palliative care, when delivered quickly and correctly, can ensure that people receive the comfort and support they need to maintain dignity at the end of life.
Palliative care treats “total pain,” as defined by the National Institutes of Health.
This is often understood as “the sum of the patient’s physical, psychological, social, and spiritual pain.” Palliative care focuses on the person behind the illness rather than solely on the illness itself. Treating for total pain helps lower stress and discomfort more comprehensively, providing patients with an opportunity for a better end to their lives.
Calvary treats the medical, emotional, and spiritual needs of our patients and their families.
We call it CalvaryCareSM. We’d like to do our part to help educate and enlighten as many people as possible on this overwhelmingly positive practice to help patients experience the “good death” every human being deserves.
Like palliative care, hospice care utilizes a team to provide care for the patients physical, emotional, spiritual and practical support needs. Hospice care focuses on both the patient and the family. Ensuring that the patient’s goals for life and care are met.
Where is hospice care provided?
Hospice is a philosophy of care and not a physical place. Hospice care may take place in the patient’s home, a nursing home or a hospital.
For most of our patients hospice takes place in the home, with family and loved ones taking the job of primary caregiver with 24-7 support from our interdisciplinary team. One of the many aspects of Calvary@Home that sets us apart is that we are the only home hospice provider backed by a physical Hospital. And a patient can enter our “continuum of care” at any point.
One of the scary things for so many people who come to Calvary is their fear that they will make the wrong choice. But there is no wrong choice at Calvary.
For example, a patient enters Calvary as an inpatient, and then can feel well enough to be cared for at home. Conversely, a home hospice patient can seamlessly become a Calvary inpatient without any interruption in care. For so many of our families, just knowing that their loved one can be admitted to Calvary Hospital at any time gives them security and confidence to provide Calvary Hospice care at home.