Hospice and palliative care are often recommended by doctors after a terminal diagnosis has been made. Both can improve the quality of life for terminally ill patients and alleviate the burden on their loved ones who care for them. Nonetheless, it’s understandable to feel bewildered by all the seemingly comparable care choices available to you. Let’s compare and evaluate these two to find out what they’re about and where they overlap.
What Is Hospice Care?
Hospice, as defined by most online dictionaries, is a form of medical care that caters to the physical, mental, social, and spiritual needs of terminally ill patients and their families. Patients who have decided to quit curative therapy because it no longer affects the course of their illness are eligible for hospice care. They have no more than a 6-month window of life at best. The Hospice staff helps the patient and their loved ones who care for them. The team member is on call around-the-clock and may make frequent home calls to monitor the patient.
What Is Palliative Care?
Palliative care is medical care for persons experiencing the last stages of a life-threatening illness, such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, chronic respiratory disease, AIDS, and other terminal conditions that cause pain and breathing difficulties. Treatments designed to alleviate physical, mental, and emotional distress are known as palliative care, and they can be offered in conjunction with curative treatments. If you like, it can be given in the comfort of your own home, a hospital, or a nursing home.
Palliative Care Vs Hospice
Palliative care includes hospice as one of its subsets. In other words, hospice care is associated with palliative care but not vice versa. Both prioritize listening and honoring the needs of chronically ill patients and their caregivers as they work to alleviate their pain. In addition to addressing the patient’s physiological, physical, and spiritual requirements, the healthcare team focuses on relieving the patient’s pain and other patients. In any case, there are distinctions to bear in mind. The primary difference between palliative care and hospice is that patients qualifying for palliative care can still get their palliative treatment in addition to long-term medical therapies. Second, while palliative care is not a prerequisite, hospice patients should have a life expectancy of no more than six months. Thirdly, whereas palliative care focuses on symptom management, hospice care on the quality of life for the terminally ill.
Which Facilities Offer Hospice and Palliative Care?
Hospice care can be provided in a variety of different settings, including private homes, nursing homes, assisted living facilities, veteran’s institutions, hospitals, and more. Most often, institutions will employ a staff dedicated to providing palliative care.
Who Usually Relies on Palliative Care?
Patients with various illnesses also fit the American Society for Clinical Oncology profile as those who benefit most from palliative care rather than curative treatment.
- The patient can’t take care of himself very well at the moment.
- The patient has completed curative treatment and no longer improves as a result of it.
- There is no suitable clinical study for the patient to participate in.
Discuss your treatment objectives with your loved ones and your doctor to determine if palliative and/or hospice care might enhance your quality of life.