Hospice

A Speech Topic To Enlighten an Audience

What comes to mind when you hear the word Hospice. Does it conjure up thoughts of cancer and death. It is much more. For baby-boomers caring for aging parents facing the end of life, it can be a godsend. This means it can be an exciting speech topic.

Yet it is estimated that close to 75% of people who qualify for this kind of care do not get it. Why?

A Special Request

At the end of this speech topic there is a special request regarding a book that stories are being collected for. Please check it out. If you have a story, could we share it with the world to help people know the truth about this special kind of health care.

A Bad Rap

Hospice occasionally gets a bad rap from some who shroud it with emotionally charged negative comments. Many misconceptions have no foundation in science. Evidence based medicine has debunked the horrific accusations attributed to this kind of health care and shown it to be beneficial beyond what most conceive.

Only education will make it possible for people to benefit from this special kind of health care. People need to know what it does. How it helps people live.

Hospice helps people in four basic ways. These are the pillars of support that make the hospice care model. It is a way to help people live during the end of life.

Additionally, it does not speed up the dying process as some think. Many patients actually end up with an extended better quality of life. Occasionally some do so good, they have to be discharged from hospice care.

The first way it helps...Palliative end of life care- not curative care. The focuses is on managing symptoms, reverse them if possible but not curing them. This means some will get surgery as part of their care. Some will get chemo or other treatments.

The second way...Maintaining Dignity During the End of Life. Everyone deserves dignity and respect. There is no place here for the thinking ‘respect has to be earned.’ This applies if you are the patient or a member of the health care team. Respect is an ethic and responsibility that needs to be shown on every occasion and to each and everyone we come in contact with. Whether a person from the lowest station a human could occupy to the most prestigious, all deserve respect.

The third...Maintaining the Maximum Quality of Life. The goal is to help patients live. We help them keep living by helping them do things that they would normally do if they had the health. To illustrate, one patient had a love of baseball. Arrangements were made and his family took him to see big league baseball games from time to time. It required a two hour trip.

The fourth... Being There Through the End of Life.No body should die alone. Nobody should have to face the singular most life altering event any shall ever experience by themselves. As members of the human family, all deserve the right to have someone, if they wish, to help with the thoughts, emotions, and feelings experienced at this time.

Hospice means being there for the patient and the families, filling the various needs of all. Sometimes when a patient has started the active dying process, there will be a Registered Nurses, an LPN or a Certified Nurse Aid assigned to sit with the patient around the clock to manage symptoms or for comfort as the need may be.

These four pillars are the framework that are the basis of of this special kind of health care.

Did you notice a common thread that was in each and every one of the pillars?

Each of the four pillars have a life component to them.

When thinking of hospice, people have a lot of ideas in their head. Most think of cancer and or death. The most important thing that people need to know when thinking of hospice, it means helping people to live. It is about life.

By the way, which of the four pillars would you consider the most important? Don't answer that just yet.

First, consider some of the myths.

Morphine is given to speed up the dying process.

A second closely related myth is that eventually enough morphine is given to manage the pain that the respirations are slowed down so much that the patient dies.

Morphine is an old fashioned treatment to manage respiratory distress. Actually it helps the person breath easier. In addition to helping manage pain, it helps people breathe more comfortably.

Unless the patient is a long term chronic pain sufferer, most receive a dose so small that it is equivalent to a Vicodin. It only has an effective life of 3 hours. At the most they will only get it every two hours for the overlapping effect.

Starving and Suffering Myth

During the death and dying process people many times eat less. A whole lot less. There have been numerous studies on this. It turns out that in a starved state the human body starts to release many chemicals that help the body manage impending death.

Studies have shown that people do not suffer. The decreased dietary intake actually enhances their lives. Numerous stories have been shared by families where the patient had increased alertness and awareness prior to death. Additionally, many of these patients have no pain or respiratory distress when they start the active dying process in this state.

Hospice is for Cancer

Although true, hospice care is for all kinds illnesses. Alzheimer's, debility, ALS, Parkinson's or cardiac disease. When ever there is a disease that cannot be reversed and it is life ending, this kind of care helps the patient live.

The Most Important Pillar

Now, which was the most important pillar. The first answer might be all four are equally important. Actually the most important is the one that happens to be most important to the patient.

Hospice is about filling the needs of patients and their families.

Want more enlightening topics?

My Hospice Health Care Lectures discuss what hospice is, how it works, and what it does for you.

Dream Total Recall Would you like to recall tonight’s dreams tomorrow?

Learn to Listen to to Loved Ones by understanding a simple principle.

A Special Request

Everyone has stories. Many are going to be lost from our history. They are stories that others would enjoy, life experiences that could help us know where we come from and where we are going to.

Would you like to help with the creation of a book on these stories of the patients and families of hospice? If you know of someone or have a story, please contact me personally.

All stories will be considered for publication in an upcoming book. It will be necessary to get your contact information for additional questions that may come up.

Help others know the special stories of the special people who are the patients or families of hospice care.

Please Note... If I have previously cared for you or your family as a patient or if you or family were a patient of any agency where I was employed then your stories cannot be used. It is one of those ethical things we have to be careful about. I do not want any of my patients to worry about their stories being shared without their permission.

It is for this reason I am not even telling my patients or their families of this web site or the book. Sorry for any inconvenience.