“You matter to the last moment of your life, and we will do all we can, not only to help you die peacefully, but to live until you die.”
Dame Cecily Saunders, founder of the modern hospice movement
Dignity, Choice, Compassion
The truth is that hospice is not about how you die. It is about how you live. Hospice care helps patients and their families make informed choices, provides companionship to patients and respite to caregivers, provides grief support, and identifies key community services that can be of assistance. All hospice services are provided in the patient's home or place of residence: nursing home, assisted living facility or adult family home.
Our Team Approach
Our teams of professional health care providers ~ nurses, medical social workers, home health aides, chaplains, occupational/physical therapists, clinical pharmacist, medical directors, grief support counselors, and volunteers ~ have specialized training in end-of-life issues. Through skilled, compassionate care, they strive to meet the physical, emotional, social and spiritual needs of patients and families. Hospice care is most effective when it is begun early so that the education, support and counseling services offered by the hospice team can be most beneficial to the patient and his or her family.
Our Programs and Services
Along with our patient centered approach to care for children and adults with life-limiting illnesses, our programs and services include several distinct areas of specialized support.
Stepping Stones provides specialized medical, emotional, and spiritual support for children diagnosed with a life-limiting or terminal illness.
Complementary Therapy provides comfort services above and beyond hospice care, from full body massage to relaxing live music.
Diversity and Multi-Cultural Outreach partners with the community to provide culturally sensitive care to people with life-limiting illnesses.
Grief Support Services offers emotional guidance and support for and adults before and after death of a loved one. Our children’s grief program, Safe Crossings, offers specialized, compassionate care to children and their families who are grieving the loss of a loved one.
Hospice can help improve the quality of life for any age, with any life-limiting illness. While many hospice patients have cancer, hospice care includes any life threatening illness such as ALS, Alzheimer’s (and other types of dementias), AIDS, stroke, Parkinson’s, severe birth defects, and end-stage heart, lung, kidney, or liver disease.
Payment
Medicare, Medicaid, and most private insurance plans pay for hospice services. Private pay is also accepted. Financial assistance is available for those who cannot afford to pay.
Everyone needs information about hospice before they need hospice. “If only we had called you sooner...” is a comment we often hear from family members who have experienced the benefits of hospice care. Contact us at 206-320-4000 or hospiceinfo@providence.org as soon as you have questions or concerns about end-of-life care options.
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