Why Is it Sometimes Difficult to Embrace Hospice?
The later stages of your senior’s life are not necessarily easy ones. There are care decisions to be made, especially if you haven’t done that already. The idea of hospice care might be a frightening one, but is it time for you to embrace that possibility? Looking at some of these details can help you to take the steps necessary to do more investigating.
There’s Often a Great Deal of Debate
You, your senior, and other family members might all have something to say about hospice care services and when they’re appropriate. There’s a lot that you might need to learn about hospice, both so that you understand it and also so that you can help to educate everyone else in your senior’s life. But even then, you might still have a debate on your hands.
Hospice Covers a Lot of Ground
The reality is that hospice care providers can do a lot to help your senior with the challenges she’s facing. They can also help you in terms of respite assistance and other caregiver-specific aid. Other family members can also benefit from bereavement assistance and other programs. All in all, hospice covers an awful lot of ground that you and your family might not have expected.
Misconceptions Sometimes Feel True
Unfortunately, even with information sometimes misconceptions and misinformation feel true, even if that’s only because you and family members have heard those tales told for years. One of the most common bits of misinformation is that hospice can make seniors give up faster or pass away more quickly than they would have otherwise. Hospice is about maintaining your senior’s quality of life for as long as possible.
Waiting Can Make Sense, but it Puts Off Valuable Help
It’s entirely possible that your senior isn’t in a position where hospice care makes the best sense for her right now. But it’s important to assess that actively rather than passively putting off the decision indefinitely. Talk to your senior’s doctors about how hospice care might benefit her and what types of care she can reasonably expect if she makes the decision to go with hospice. That can help you to make the right decision.
There’s no right or wrong answer about hospice. What matters is what hospice can do for your senior and for the rest of your family members. That’s where you can finally come to the right decision for your senior’s situation.
If you or an aging parent is considering hospice care in West Chester, PA, please contact the caring staff at Serenity Hospice today. Call (215) 867-5405.