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With some questionable health advice being posted by your friends on Facebook, politicians arguing about the state of the American healthcare system and a new medical study being summarized in just a sentence or two on TV---that seems to contradict the study you heard summarized yesterday---it can be overwhelming to navigate the ever-changing landscape of health news.

Hospice Helps Patients Reclaim the Spirit of Life

Flickr user Ron Mader (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/)

In the book "Soul Service," Christine Cowgill states, “Death should not be viewed as a medical failure but as a natural conclusion to life.”

November is National Hospice and Palliative Care Month.

Hospice and palliative care combine the highest level of quality pain management and symptom control with emotional and spiritual support to ensure that patients and families find dignity, respect, and love when a cure is not possible. According to J. Donald Schumacher, president and CEO of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, through this specialized quality care, many patients and their families experience more meaningful moments together. Hospice helps them focus on living despite a terminal diagnosis. It promotes a good death, which the Institute of Medicine defines as “one that is free from avoidable distress and suffering, for patients, family, and caregivers.”

Many people have never heard of hospice or palliative care. They sometimes confuse this type of care with euthanasia or physician assisted suicide. Hospice is really the opposite. Nothing is done to hasten death. In fact as the Hospice Foundation of America reports, hospice helps patients reclaim the spirit of life.

Americans tend to view illness in combative terms: we fight disease, we want to win our health battles, not “lose” them.  However, putting off entering hospice care does not delay death, it deprives the patient and family of the support they need during this last transition. A good death is truly a victory.

Resources:
http://www.nhpco.org/
http://www.hospicedirectory.org/cm/about/choosing/myths_facts
https://hospicefoundation.org/
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17324174-soul-service
https://www.sehealth.org/services/home-care/hospice
https://www.sfmc.net/hospice-services-program/
http://www.vnasemo.com/hospice
Emmanuel, E. J. (1998, May). The Promise of a Good Death [Abstract]. The Lancet, 351, SI121-SI129. doi:DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(98)90329-4
 

Dr. Brooke Hildebrand Clubbs is an assistant professor in the Department of Leadership, Middle & Secondary Education. She writes for special publications of The Southeast Missourian and is a certified Community Health Worker.
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