Demystifying Hospice

Inside the Stories of Patients and Caregivers

Karen J. Clayton

• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
• Year: 2018
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781538114957
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Caregiving

Hospice care is available to patients and families dealing with terminal illness. People often do not avail themselves of hospice care because they don't understand what it entails. Many wait until their last few days to request this extraordinary comfort care instead of using the full six months available to them through Medicare and other insurance options.

Demystifying Hospice describes through stories good news about end-of-life issues. Written from the perspective of a licensed social worker with experience in public and private hospitals, hospice, and the American Cancer Society, these first-hand accounts of patients, family members, hospice workers and others will lift spirits, touch hearts, and illustrate the advantages of hospice care. These are real-life examples of personalized comfort care, offered by an interdisciplinary team, where ever the patient lives. Each story addresses some aspect of helping families through the caregiving and grieving process, which are part-and-parcel of a serious illness, and offers comfort and understanding to readers who may be going through similar experiences. This book describes hope, healing, and support through difficult times.

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• First Visits by the Social Worker
• Hospice Care at Home
• Caring for the Caregiver
• Hospice in a Place You Call Home
• Finding Meaning
• Dramatic Challenges
• Social Isolation
• Saying Goodbye
• Remembering
• Mixed Feelings about End-of-Life Care
• Making Good End-of-Life Decisions
• Reflections
• Appendix A
• Appendix B
• Appendix C
• Appendix D
• Appendix E
• Appendix F
• Appendix G
• Notes
• Index
• About the Author