Palliative Care:
To palliate: to make comfortable by treating a person’s symptoms related to an illness.
Palliative care has long been provided by hospice programs for dying Americans. Currently these programs serve more than 1.2 million patients and their families each year. This same approach to care is now being used by other healthcare providers, including teams in hospitals, nursing facilities and home health agencies in combination with other medical treatments to help people who are seriously ill.
Hospice and palliative care both focus on helping a person be comfortable by addressing issues causing physical or emotional pain, or suffering. Hospice and other palliative care providers have teams of people working together to provide care. The goals of palliative care are to improve the quality of a seriously ill person’s life and to support that person and their family during and after treatment.
Palliative care may be given at any time during a person’s illness, from diagnosis on. Most hospices have a set of defined services, team members and rules and regulations. Some hospices provide palliative care as a separate program or service, which can often be confusing.
Hospice:
Hospice focuses on relieving symptoms and supporting patients with a life expectancy of months not years, and their families.
Considered to be the model for quality, compassionate care for people facing a life-limiting illness or injury, hospice and palliative care involve a team-oriented approach to expert medical care, pain management, and emotional and spiritual support expressly tailored to the person’s needs and wishes. Support is provided to the person’s loved ones as well.
The focus of hospice relies on the belief that each of us has the right to die pain-free and with dignity, and that our loved ones will receive the necessary support to allow us to do so.
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Hospice focuses on caring, not curing and, in most cases; care is provided in the person’s home.
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Hospice care also is provided in freestanding hospice centers, hospitals, and nursing homes and other long-term care facilities.
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Hospice services are available to patients of any age, religion, race, or illness.
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Hospice care is covered under Medicare, Medicaid, most private insurance plans, HMOs, and other managed care organizations.
http://njhospice.org/ To find a Hospice Palliative Provider in your area