Understanding Hospice Care as a Family Caregiver
As your elderly family member nears the end of her life, it might feel as if she has fewer options available than ever before. That might not be as true as you might think, though. Opting for hospice care services can fill a lot of the care gaps that your senior may be feeling frustrated with at this stage of her life.
Decisions Regarding Hospice Care
Hospice Care Selma CA – Understanding Hospice Care as a Family Caregiver
Decisions about your elderly family member’s care are difficult enough, but when her health changes dramatically for the worse, it can be even more complicated. There may well be situations in which it’s too late for your senior to have a say in what happens next. But often your elderly family member can still help you to figure out what she wants from this stage of her life. Talk with your senior and do what you can to make the best possible choices for her, especially around hospice and other types of care.
When Is Hospice Right?
Typically your senior’s doctor will recommend hospice care to her if they calculate that she has less than six months left to live. That’s variable, however, and your senior’s doctor may recommend hospice earlier or later, depending on a variety of factors. You and your senior can always ask about it as well. If your elderly family member has run out of treatment options, it may be time to consider hospice. When she’s ready to go with symptom management rather than curative treatments, it’s also time to consider hospice.
How Long Does Hospice Last?
Hospice usually lasts for as long as your senior needs it to last. That might sound vague, and since one of the qualifying factors is that your senior’s doctor believes that she’s got about six months left of her life, it can also sound finite. All of this is true, and yet some variables make each hospice experience a unique one. Your senior’s doctor can recertify her for hospice as many times as necessary to help her to have the end-of-life care that she needs.
Help Available through Hospice
The types of help available through hospice care are also flexible depending on what your elderly family member needs most. Her doctors all work together with the hospice team to manage your senior’s symptoms and to help her to feel as well as possible. Hospice may bring in medical equipment, like a hospital bed or a wheelchair, to help your senior to be more comfortable. Hospice can also help you to find additional resources, like respite care or bereavement counseling. All of these types of services help you and your senior to cope with the changes that she is experiencing.
Hospice is a service that can be truly tailored to meet your elderly family member’s needs. Your elderly family member’s hospice team works closely with her medical providers to ensure that all of her needs are covered and that she’s able to have the kind of experience she wants to have at the end of her life.
Excerpt: Hospice care can feel confusing, especially when your elderly family member is dealing with so much already.
If you or an aging loved one are considering Hospice Care Services in Selma CA, please contact the caring staff at Everlight Home Care today. Call us at 559-353-2847.
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This combination of experiences has afforded Gina a unique view of the needs of the aging and the disabled and how to best serve those needs in a home setting.
Gina’s Central Valley roots run deep. She earned her BA degree from Fresno State in 1993 and has lived and worked in Fresno for the past 20 years. In addition to raising her family in Fresno, she is actively involved in her local church and is a volunteer for various local community organizations.
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