Often caregivers and family members are unsure about hospice because they just don’t know enough about it yet. If that describes your family member, it might be time to start asking her medical team more about hospice care and how it can help her.
What Is Likely to Happen if We Keep Going as We Are?
If your family member is currently following a treatment plan, you need to know what is likely to happen in the near future. It’s possible that the current treatments won’t make her situation worse, but will these treatments improve anything? If not, then trying something like hospice care might be more beneficial.
Will New or Different Treatments Help?
Something else that you need to determine is whether your family member wants to try new curative treatments or not. If she does, you need to be aware of how likely those treatments are likely to be actively helpful for her. Her medical team may let you and her know that different or new treatments might not do as much as she’s hoping that they will.
Will Stopping Treatment Improve Quality of Life?
Sometimes treatments that are intended to be helpful, like , can damage your family member’s quality of life. She may start to feel that stopping curative therapies improves her quality of life. This is important because your family member may not have a lot of time left and she wants to enjoy that time to the best of her ability to do so. Hospice care treatments can give her that improved quality of life.
What Can Hospice Do for My Family Member?
When you’re starting to seriously consider hospice care, it’s important to get a solid idea what it can do specifically for your family member right now. You might be shocked at the answer. Hospice uses a thorough treatment plan that considers what your family member needs as a whole person. Does she need to talk to someone about spiritual concerns? Or possibly she needs help with pain management. All of these issues and more fall under how hospice can help her.
Hospice care is an option that can work well for so many family members who are near the ends of their lives. It’s a way to help your family member to get the most out of the time that she has left, no matter what health issues are troubling her.
If you or a loved-one are considering hospice elder care in Dunwoody, GA, please call the caring staff at Arcturus Hospice and Palliative Care today. Call 678-383-9973 today to speak to our care team.
Kate Gorinshteyn is the director of marketing at Arcturus Health Care. Arcturus is a fast-growing Hospice striving to provide the highest level of quality care to patients faced with life-limiting illnesses. Our goal is to make each patient as pain-free as possible and give physiological, emotional and spiritual support to both the patient and family. We understand that the decision change from curative to comfort care is difficult, and our team is trained to help you every step of the way!
We are proud to make a difference in the lives of those we serve.
