Hospice care is an important part of a person’s health care plan, especially if they are battling a terminal illness. While it can be difficult to broach the topic of hospice care with a loved one, we at St. Bernardine Care Providers believe that all High Desert patients who require hospice care deserve access to it as early as possible. This often improves a person’s final weeks and days, and provides the family with much-needed peace. Apple Valley patients who may require hospice care should discuss if it is the right time to begin this type of treatment.
When Is Hospice Care Recommended?
In general, patients who are given a life expectancy of six months or less are qualified to receive hospice care. In most cases, the physician will provide the patient with a diagnosis and a life expectancy. Ultimately, most physicians will recommend hospice care to patients who are not seeking to treat the illness that they have. When treatment and curing the disease is no longer the course the patient and the doctor are taking, hospice care will begin in order to provide the patient with maximum comfort during their last weeks and months.
What Are Some Signals That Could Indicate a Need for Hospice Care?
Patients who are burdened by their treatment plans or begin to feel that treatment is no longer beneficial to them may be looking to have hospice care services. Family members should take note of any complaints of physical symptoms, and if these symptoms become too difficult to bear, it might be time to consider hospice care. Patients who have a difficult time taking care of themselves, or who are frequently making short trips to the hospital, may benefit greatly from hospice care services.
Who Can Request Hospice Care for a Patient?
Hospice care can be requested by anyone who is involved in the patient’s life. A physician can recommend hospice care, family members can request these services, and even friends as well as clergy members can ask about hospice care for a particular patient.
Hospice care is beneficial for people in Hesperia and Victorville who are battling many different types of terminal illness. Hospice care allows people to feel comfortable in their own environment while they live out their final days with family members, friends and loved ones. At St. Bernardine Care Providers, we work with family members in order to help them decide if it is the right time to begin hospice care. This can be a difficult, challenging and stressful time, and we work gently with each family in order to be sure that they feel good about the decision that they have made.
