The Importance of Personalized Hospice Care

So you’ve decided to consider hospice for you or your loved one. You want them to be cared for the same you hope others would care for you in a difficult situation. So how do you know that hospice is the right answer? How do you know that using hospice care is any better than staying home to care for them yourself?

Hospice care has mastered the balance of providing specialized medical care during difficult times and treating your family like our own. When it comes to hospice care, there is no one-size-fits-all treatment plan. That’s why the National Institute of Health, and agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, began integrating hospice’s Individualized Care Planning and Coordination model into treatment for pediatric cancer patients. The model has 8 individual priorities and goals that are constantly re-evaluated based on the needs of both the patient and the family: advanced care planning, ethics consultation, care coordination, care continuity, symptom control, emotional/social/spiritual care, end-of-life care, and bereavement care.

how hospice care benefits from these goals

While all those terms may seem clinical and impersonal, they are in place in order to evaluate every step of a patient and their families’ lives. By breaking the care concept down into an 8-goal model, it allows palliative/hospice care and medical professionals to change any treatment, service, or need that has not been met. By creating a system this intricate, it holds the concept true that every patient will be different, regardless of diagnosis, and should be treated as an individual accordingly.

So what do those services and goals in the NIH’s model truly mean for you and your loved ones?

• ‍Advanced care planning is basically helping the patient and/or their family to coordinate with what they would like to see happen when the disease has run its course. It may include advanced directives or DNR orders or choosing a member of the family who will make decisions regarding further treatment or the entrance to hospice care.
• ‍Ethics consultations allows a patient to discuss what may be the result of treatment versus non treatment with a physician and leads directly into care coordination.
• Care coordination comes into play after a decision has been made regarding treatment or care everyone involved in the care of you or your loved one has orders and instructions on how to handle your specific case and knows exactly what is being asked for or provided.
• Care continuity means that as time progresses, follow-ups are being conducted to help the patient continue to live their best life. Sometimes that may mean switchin g medications or treatments, or sometimes it may simply allow a patient who wishes more time with a therapist or compassionate care coach to be heard as often as they need.
• Symptom control and emotional/social/spiritual care go hand in hand. They are designed and have been proven to contribute to a longer and more fulfilled life as perceived by patients and their families. Both are specifically catered to accomplish what is requested by the patient and their family in order to allow time together to be meaningful and memorable in a positive light. As end-of-life care rolls around and things become more confusing, hospices’ goal is to provide relief and assurance, not just for the patient, but for their loved ones as well. That relief may come in the form of in-patient stays in order to give family enough time to visit, but it also could simply mean moving into a nursing home, respite care, or having at home care given just a little more often to alleviate recurring symptoms.
• In the final stage of this model bereavement care is for the family and close friends of the patient who has passed to have an outlet to express, understand, and accept what their passing means. It is also focused on bringing the family and friends together in a time that can often otherwise encourage isolation.

These steps are designed to promote personalized and simplified hospice care for every single phase of you or your loved one’s life. It is important to remember that those steps are broken down into eight specific parts because a terminal diagnosis does not mean another predetermined plan for treatment. Everyone has specific needs and goals that need to be met, and hospice care is one way to make sure you or your loved one receives a personalized plan of care. These moments are precious, and making them personal and as stress-free as possible is the goal of professional quality hospice providers. If you have questions about your specific situation or would like more information on hospice care, please contact us and let Monarch Hospice help.

Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2577813/