Hospice care focuses on alleviating pain and suffering while providing counseling and comfort to those in the final stages of terminal illness. To be eligible for hospice care, a senior must be declared by his or her primary doctor to be terminally ill and expected to pass within 60 days. A patient can leave hospice care at any time. If your family decides the time is
not right, you can return to curative care.
Services
Hospice care nurses and doctors:
- provide pain management designed to lessen physical discomfort during a patient’s final weeks of life
- provide counselors and clergy if desired
- help seniors, friends, and family to cope with emotional distress
- counsel focuses on accepting the coming end of life
- includes occupational and physical therapists to help keep the senior as comfortable and independent as possible
- work primarily in the senior’s home or nursing home, but also in some hospitals and inpatient centers
- when medical attention is not needed, volunteers are available to provide company if there is time when friends and family members cannot be present
- do not provide aggressive treatment for terminal illness
- do not treat seniors who still strive to recover from illness
Specialization
Make sure your Hospice Organization is Medicare certified and licensed by the state. Also, being accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organizations (JCAHO), the Accreditation Commission for Health Care (ACHA), or the Community Heath Care Accreditation Program (CHAP) is key.
Preparation
Before you seek out Hospice Care for your loved one determine the following:
- The current prognosis for your parent.
- Your families level of comfort around Hospice care, counseling and support?
- Friends and family members that are available to be present during hospice care.
- Religious affiliations preferences
Evaluation
- Explain the senior’s care plan to the family so we know what to expect. How flexible is the plan and what are the requirements of the family caregivers involvement?
- Do you have a religious affiliation? Are you able to provide clergy or spiritual guidance outside your denomination?
- Describe all costs associated with your service and the methods of billing and payment.
- Do you provide inpatient care? Where is this care provided? Can I visit the inpatient care space before making a decision?
- Do you work in nursing facilities or retirement living communities? Are the services provided any different in a nursing home setting?
- Provide references.
Hospice Care Radio Show Segments
- Remember Me and Delayed Honor
John Wenderlein joins Suzanne to talk about how he got started as a hospice chaplain and wrote his two books ”Remember Me: End of Life as Seen through the Eyes of a Hospice Chaplain” and ”Delayed Honor.”
“John says, “What I found as I was visiting these patients, I would leave having to write their stories down. So on my computer, I have 1,000, 1,500 stories… One of my pastor buddies about a year or two ago said, John, you should write a book. I was telling him a quick story. He wasn’t a chaplain, he was a retired pastor, and he said, John, that story is so overwhelming… I wrote my first book, and I struggled with it. With the help of close friends and my wife, I got through it.
“My second book, what we found is and many people forget is we have pretty much buried a generation of World War II and Korean veterans – the last patient I had was 105, he was in the Army Air Corps, which ended in 1947. What I was finding was, when I would meet a Vietnam veteran at the end of his life, I talked about this reflection. They were devastated, they were heartbroken. When they came back to this country, they were just spat upon, horrible things done. So I took those stories and I put them in my second book. And that book has just come out a couple of weeks ago, and that’s called Delayed Honor.”
Learn more about John Wenderlein:
* Remember Me: End of Life as Seen through the Eyes of a Hospice Chaplain https://www.amazon.com/Remember-Me-through-Hospice-Chaplain/dp/B0CGL5V4KZ
* Delayed Honor https://www.amazon.com/Delayed-Honor-John-Kirn-Wenderlein/dp/B0CTXB6M22
* John’s website: https://www.remembermejw.com/Hear more:
* End of life podcasts at Answers for Elders: https://answersforelders.com/tag/end-of-life/Answers for Elders is part of the Senior Resource Network: https://www.seniorresource.com/
Check out our affiliate podcast Alzheimer’s Speaks: https://alzheimersspeaks.com/ - Words Left Unspoken: Starting Last Conversations
Hospice chaplain John Wenderlein joins Suzanne to talk about how he helps families facilitate having those difficult conversations during end of life care and hospice.
John says, “I think you have to bring them to a peace of mind. You know, we come into a family, and what we like to call in our Christian life, a lot. Their last season, you have to convince them that you’re there because you love them. You just want to be there and that opens up, that takes down that wall many times. I will have a conversation with family members as if I was [part of] the family. They get to love me in that way because it’s just about the end of life for that family member and it’s how they go out. That’s so important to me.”
“W live with people who rerun their lives. I was with someone two days ago. I walked into her room and she was staring into the ceiling. She said, I’m looking at my life at a million miles an hour. What happens when we come to this end? They resolve, they come to peace with what’s coming.”
How do we as adult children help to resolve issues? John says, “Well, we start by listening. I know that’s hard sometimes as we get older. But you know what happens is, as we get older, the role responsibilities tend to change. We tend to be in the parent role… You almost have to be silent. They are going to desire to download, tell everybody the truth, tell everybody they love that they care. Or maybe there was some friction. I’ve seen families get together at the end of life when they couldn’t get along during life, because it’s time. It’s kind of like you’re packing your bags [for a trip] and you make sure you put your toothbrush in there at the end, make sure everything’s in there, all inclusive. And that’s what many people do when they come to the end.”
Learn more about John Wenderlein:
* Remember Me: End of Life as Seen through the Eyes of a Hospice Chaplain https://www.amazon.com/Remember-Me-through-Hospice-Chaplain/dp/B0CGL5V4KZ
* Delayed Honor https://www.amazon.com/Delayed-Honor-John-Kirn-Wenderlein/dp/B0CTXB6M22
* John’s website: https://www.remembermejw.com/Hear more:
* End of life podcasts at Answers for Elders: https://answersforelders.com/tag/end-of-life/Answers for Elders is part of the Senior Resource Network: https://www.seniorresource.com/
Check out our affiliate podcast Alzheimer’s Speaks: https://alzheimersspeaks.com/ - How to Say Goodbye to Loved Ones
Hospice chaplain John Wenderlein joins Suzanne to talk about learning how to have the conversations to say goodbye to our loved ones at the end of their lives.
There’s often a denial process with family members. John says, “Even though a doctor has told you six months, mother and dad are getting ready to pass. So there’s a big fight. I don’t mean a physical fight or a verbal fight, I mean an emotional struggle, and it doesn’t happen so much with the patient because many times they’ve been sick for a while, it happens with the family. One of our struggles in the hospice business is to get all that paperwork correct, and [families] just don’t want to hear it.
“My role is a role people are a little confused about. You have the doctor, you have a nurse, you have a worker… But when the chaplain walks through the door, it becomes real. It becomes real for the family, it becomes real for the patient. So, as a chaplain, I have to be careful how I initially meet them. My job is to keep the spiritual strength up and keep the conversation as light as possible.
“Many of the medical questions are answered by the nurses, are answered by our literature. We hand out literature that says these are the signs. Don’t be confused if your mother or father seems to be getting better before they get worse. Don’t be surprised if there’s changes in the skin — touch, texture or skin color. And of course, with memory and things like that, don’t be surprised that he or she’s going to have those moments and talk about that vacation 20 years ago.”
Learn more about John Wenderlein:
* Remember Me: End of Life as Seen through the Eyes of a Hospice Chaplain https://www.amazon.com/Remember-Me-through-Hospice-Chaplain/dp/B0CGL5V4KZ
* Delayed Honor https://www.amazon.com/Delayed-Honor-John-Kirn-Wenderlein/dp/B0CTXB6M22
* John’s website: https://www.remembermejw.com/Hear more:
* End of life podcasts at Answers for Elders: https://answersforelders.com/tag/end-of-life/Answers for Elders is part of the Senior Resource Network: https://www.seniorresource.com/
Check out our affiliate podcast Alzheimer’s Speaks: https://alzheimersspeaks.com/ - Hospice, part 2 with Cassidy Bastien
With 9,000 COVID deaths, many of us have lost loved ones recently. Suzanne talks with Cassidy Bastien, an end-of-life doula, about a difficult topic to talk about, the end of life: How to be there for someone when they’re dying, and what to say. This segment talks about the family’s role, to make sure you know you’re loved one’s wishes and advocate for them. Visit her Caregivers Hub Support Group at Facebook.
- Hospice, part 1 with Cassidy Bastien
With 9,000 COVID deaths, many of us have lost loved ones recently. Suzanne talks with Cassidy Bastien, an end-of-life doula, about a difficult topic to talk about, the end of life. There comes a time when you’re caregiving a loved one when the time is near, we have an option for hospice care. Hospice is the umbrella of care that surrounds end of life. Eligibility comes down to a significant decline, not eating or walking, or a significant weight loss, with a diagnosis of six months or less to live, and a doctor’s referral. If you feel that they qualify, you can ask for an evaluation. It focuses on quality of comfort at end of life. Visit her Caregivers Hub Support Group at Facebook.
- Hospice Care with Greg Mundell
Greg Mundell with Careage at Patriot’s Landing talks about End of Life, Advanced Directive, and Hospice Care.
