Category — Palliative Care vs. Hospice
Palliative Care verses Hospice Care
Forty –four million adults are primary caregivers to individuals who are chronically ill or critically ill and disabled. One half of the hospitals in the U.S., with 50 beds or more, offer differing degrees of Palliative Care Service. Do you know the difference between Palliative Care and Hospice? If you do not know the differences between the two, and you are a family caregiver you will learn from this article.
If you are one of the millions of Americans not familiar with the term Palliative Care, please let me acquaint you with this term right now. According to Wikepedia. “Palliative care (from Latin palliare, to cloak) is any form of medical care or treatment that concentrates on reducing the severity of disease symptoms, rather than striving to halt, delay, or reverse progression of the disease itself or provide a cure. The goal is to prevent and relieve suffering and to improve quality of life for people facing serious, complex illness. Non-hospice palliative care is not dependent on prognosis and is offered in conjunction with curative and all other appropriate forms of medical treatment. It should not be confused with hospice care which delivers palliative care to those at the end of life. In the UK, this distinction is not operative; hospices and non-hospice-based palliative care teams both provide care to those with life limiting illness at any stage of their disease.
If at this point in our discussion, if you are thinking, “How is it that I knew nothing about Palliative Care before. You are not alone. Statistics indicate that less then 25% of Doctors and nurses are trained and familiar with Palliative Care services and options. As Medicare and Medicaid cutbacks loom in the future, it is imperative to become educated about Care-giving that focuses on faith, love and living rooted in individual needs, family values and quality of life.
August 28, 2009 No Comments
