If you or a loved one are diagnosed with a serious illness, knowing what to do next is never easy and you may be wondering about hospice and palliative comfort care. Hospice and palliative medicine provide medical care and treatment to seriously ill individuals, providing the right care at the right time. Understanding your options for care will help to relieve your anxiety and allow you to make informed decisions to receive the most helpful type of care for you or your loved one.
The Difference Between Palliative (Comfort) Care and Hospice
The difference between hospice and palliative care is that palliative care relieves symptoms of a disease or disorder, whether or not it can be cured and regardless of life expectancy. Hospice care is a specific type of palliative care provided to people with a life-limiting illness. Hospice and end of life care is always palliative, but not all palliative care is hospice care.
Both hospice and palliative care share the same core values and philosophies, striving to improve quality of life. Palliative care extends the hospice principles to include people with a serious illness that have more than a six-month prognosis to live. Palliative care focuses on relieving suffering to improve quality of life at any stage of a serious illness, whether it is chronic, curable or life-threatening.
Hospice and Palliative Medicine
Angels Grace Hospice & Palliative Care provides comforting hospice and palliative medicine to people with a serious or life-limiting illness. Our interdisciplinary team approach focuses on providing comfort, dignity and peace to those suffering with pain, symptoms and stress. We provide hospice and palliative care to help manage pain relief and provide comfort to the patient with a skilled and compassionate team of:
- Registered nurses (RNs)
- Certified Hospice and Palliative Nurses (CHPN)
- Certified Nursing Assistants (CNAs)
- Social workers
- Volunteers
- Chaplain
- Reflexologist
- Pet Therapists
All staff are trained in hospice and palliative medicine and end of life care, hand picked by Angels Grace Hospice & Palliative Care founders to provide exceptional, comforting care.
Palliative Services
Our whole team approach provides comforting care to the person suffering with serious illness as well as support for the entire family. We understand how difficult it can be when dealing with a serious illness and how confusing it can be to talk with your doctor or even know what questions to ask. Angels Grace Hospice provides support and educational materials to help you and your family start the conversation with your doctor, understand end of life care options and hospice criteria for care.
Hospice care services include aggressive comfort care rather than curative treatment, with a plan of care developed by our case manager, the patient’s physician and family. We provide skilled nursing visits based on the patient’s needs, typically two times per week, although our individualized care plan will address the amount of care needed.
Palliative care is designed to assist with symptom management and allows patients to pursue aggressive treatments such as chemotherapy, radiation therapy or dialysis. Our physician will make recommendations to your primary care physician based on your symptoms or needs. Palliative care is not time-limited and is provided based on the patient’s care needs.
Both hospice and palliative medicine services may be provided in the patient’s home, a hospital, nursing facility and/or other settings. Angels Grace Hospice & Palliative Care staff is always accessible to provide support, answer any medical questions and help to teach family and caregivers. If you or a loved one is suffering with a serious, chronic or life-limiting illness, please do not hesitate to learn more about our hospice and palliative services.
Angels Grace Hospice & Palliative Care brings comfort, dignity and peace to patients and their families through quality hospice and palliative medicine. We help to improve quality of life for patients suffering from serious and life-limiting illnesses. Contact us to learn more about our compassionate team.
Complimentary Personal Obituary Writing
In one of our truly unique and most deeply personal end-of-life services (as well as a measure of our deep understanding for just how difficult and all-consuming times like this can be), we will offer you and your family complimentary access to a skilled obituary writer.
