Throughout the month of November, Ohio’s Hospice will be joining organizations across the nation, observing National Hospice and Palliative Care Month. 

For more than 40 years, hospice care has helped provide comfort and dignity to millions of people, allowing them to spend their final months wherever they call home, surrounded by their loved ones. Hospices ensure that pain management, therapies and treatments support a plan of care that is centered on the person’s goals. This care also provides emotional support and advice to help family members become confident caregivers and adjust to the future with grief support for up to a year.

Every year, almost 1.5 million Medicare beneficiaries receive care from hospices in the United States, according to the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO). Hospice is unique in that it offers an interdisciplinary team approach to treatment. Caring for the whole person allows the team to address each patient’s unique needs and challenges. 

“At Ohio’s Hospice, our mission is to celebrate the lives of those we have the privilege of serving by providing superior care and superior services to each patient and family,” said Kent Anderson, president and CEO of Ohio’s Hospice. “Hospice care is a person-centered, team-oriented approach to care for people facing a life-limiting illness or injury. Each day, we help people live more fully during life’s final months.”

Almost 1,300 staff members along with more than 1,200 volunteers will serve more than 10,000 patients throughout Ohio by the end of 2019. 

The interdisciplinary hospice care team includes board-certified hospice and palliative care physicians, hospice-certified nurses, hospice-certified state-tested home-health aides, social workers, chaplains, pharmacists, volunteers and other healthcare professionals. 

Hospice care involves a team-oriented approach to expert medical care, pain management, and emotional and spiritual support tailored to each person’s needs. Affiliates of Ohio’s Hospice offer four levels of hospice care, including routine care, crisis care, general inpatient care and respite care, as well as grief and bereavement support for the entire family.

Hospices are also some of the best providers of community-based palliative care. Palliative care delivers expertise to improve quality of life and relief from pain. It can be provided at any time during an illness – during and after treatment, from diagnosis on. 

More information about hospice care, palliative care and advance care planning is available from Ohio’s Hospice.