If your loved one has been struggling with chronic illness or a terminal disease, you’ve probably spent an ample amount of time by their hospital bed offering support, encouragement, and comfort. You know your loved one needs care, but you might be overwhelmed with thinking about the next steps, especially when thinking about end-of-life care. Depending on the wishes of your family member and his/her prognosis, you will most likely need to choose between palliative care and hospice care.
Below we provide a broad overview of each type of care and some scenarios where you might choose one over another. We hope the following information serves as a tool to help you in your decision to care for your loved one.
What Is Hospice Care?
If your loved one has been fighting a chronic illness or disease for some time, he or she might decide they wish to quit receiving treatment. In other cases, doctors might give a grim prognosis and let you and your family know they have done everything they can to cure your loved one’s condition, and his or her body is not responding to the treatment. Choosing hospice care is the choice to forgo all attempts to cure or treat a patient’s illness or disease.
The National Institute of Health recommends medical professionals provide hospice for people who are terminally ill and have six months or less to live without treatment intervention. Some associate hospice to a specific place, but it refers to the type of care your loved one will receive. If you choose hospice care for your loved one, this can occur at home, at a hospital, at a nursing home, or a specialized hospice center.
Hospice care typically includes a team of people committed to providing medical, emotional, and spiritual support to your loved one to make them as comfortable as possible as they prepare to leave. Pain management is often a large part of the medical aspect of hospice care. Hospice team members include nurses, doctors, social workers, trained volunteers, and religious or spiritual members if your loved one chooses. This valuable time provides your loved one the opportunity to come to terms with their mortality and forgo the pain, which can accompany treatments that haven’t worked.
What Is Palliative Care?
Palliative care is another option for those who are battling a chronic illness or disease, such as heart failure, cancer, Parkinson’s disease, and many more. The philosophy behind palliative care is to help your loved one remain comfortable while treating their symptoms and illness as long as possible and hoping for a cure or remission. In many situations, those who are ill or their families choose palliative care before hospice. When your loved one isn’t responding to curative treatments, you can choose to change to a hospice care approach. Also, keep in mind that palliative care specifically refers to providing comfort to a patient, so it is also a part of hospice care.
While hospice care intends to provide end-of-life comfort, palliative care seeks to improve the quality of life for a person who is battling a serious disease or illness without regard to a time frame; Palliative care isn’t appropriate for patients who have been given less than six months to live, unless it is part of hospice care. Patients can receive palliative care at home, at the hospital, in a nursing home, or specialty outpatient clinics. Unlike hospice care, palliative care does not depend on the prognosis of your loved one and can go on indefinitely.
Palliative care also includes a team of people put in place to help you, your family, and your loved one by providing medical treatment and emotional support. In addition to doctors and nurses, a palliative team might also include social workers, nutritionists, and religious advisors. Like hospice care, team members are included based on the needs and wants of the patient and their family.
Which Type of Care Is Right for You?
Many different factors can inform why you would choose one type of care over another. Here are some scenarios which might cause a patient or deciding family members to choose palliative care over hospice care, and vice versa:
- Both types of care are for those with serious illness, but unless a doctor or medical team as giving your loved one a terminal prognosis, you might opt for palliative care. If and when you choose to quit curative treatments, you can always choose to change approaches.
- If you wish for you or your loved one to continue receiving curative treatments, you cannot choose hospice.
- Medicare pays all hospice charges, while coverage for palliative care with curative treatment depends on the patient’s benefits and their treatment plan.
- Your loved one has lived longer than six months in hospice care, which might mean they can lose insurance coverage. In this case, it might be an option to return them to only palliative care for awhile.
- Palliative care can begin at the point of diagnosis and treatment and can help a patient understand their choices for medical care as they battle a severe condition.
- Those whose loved ones have refused treatment of a chronic condition or disease often choose hospice care. Patients might be giving up on surviving their condition because their bodies haven’t responded to the treatments the way doctors hoped, or patients might choose to refuse treatment because they want to spend the short time they have left engaging with friends and family instead of coping with the side effects of chemotherapy, radiation, and other harsh treatments for disease.
Palliative care seeks to increase your loved one’s quality of life while still providing treatment and hoping for a cure for their disease or illness. When treatment is no longer an option, hospice care might be the best choice for your family. Contact Graceland Hospice Care for more information about the differences between palliative and hospice care, and to determine the best path for your loved one’s needs.
