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Alzheimer’s Caregivers: When Your Loved One Needs Hospice Care
Alzheimer’s Disease is one of our most challenging diseases to deal with, for both the one experiencing the loss of memory, dignity and function, and their caregivers. Alzheimers caregivers deal with so much. When a loved one has Alzheimer’s there are five situations that may occur that are especially difficult for Alzheimer’s Caregivers to come to terms with. These include 1) when it’s time to move the person to a facility, 2) if the person finds a new love interest, 3) when the person no longer talks, 4) when the person no longer recognizes you, and 5) when it’s time to engage hospice care services. Number 5 is written to in an excellent…
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What Does Giving Up Really Mean?
I read an excellent recent article on the pallimed website regarding this common question of “Am I giving up on fighting cancer when I choose hospice?” In it the author Amy Velasquez RN BSN OCN, a palliative care nurse specializing in helping cancer patients, discusses this weighty issue: In my line of work with cancer patients, they have taught me strength, courage and most of all faith. Our goal as the palliative care team is to find out what the patient’s absolute end goal is, and is it attainable? A patient that has stage 4 lung cancer has been diagnosed with a cancer that is termed “incurable.” So does that mean if they die from this…
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More Moments, Made Possible by Compassion Hospice
Over the last year or so we began discussing how hospice can make a positive change in your loved-one’s last days, weeks and months. Studies show that on average people have more moments, live longer, more comfortably, and with a higher quality of life when they choose hospice care in their last months of life. I’ve seen it with my own eyes literally thousands of times over the last 14 years. Hearing this from us usually pales in comparison to someone’s real life experience. In their own words you can sense the real struggle with the initial decision and the gradual realization that for most, the decision was the best could be done…
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Dignity
Our mission is to help you and your family plan and receive the care you deserve with dignity and respect. The majority of Americans want to die at home surrounded by family and friends, but most end up dying in the hospital or nursing home, cared for by strangers. Half of Americans die in pain that could have been treated. Sick people have come to fear losing their dignity or burdening their families more than they fear death. And this is all happening in a country that is meant to prize the rights of individuals and champion respect for personal wishes. Compassion Hospice was established because you and your family deserve better. We…
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We’re here to help
We know for many people, life around Christmas and the other holidays can be especially difficult as we continue to mourn the loss of a loved one. Help is available. Here are a few ways to cope with your loss: Some Ways to Cope With Grief During the Holidays Give Yourself Permission Giving yourself permission to feel is exactly what it sounds like. It means allowing yourself to feel whatever emotion emerges, whenever it emerges, without judgment or shame. Avoid judging the feelings, and give yourself space to feel without the should. Accept Your Thoughts and Feelings Accepting our feelings without criticism can be such a valuable tool for us. It puts us…