HSHS Home Care is joining organizations across the nation in recognizing National Hospice and Palliative Care Month (NHPCM) for November.  This year’s NHPCM theme is “meeting you where you are.” 

For more than 40 years, hospice has helped provide support to millions of people, allowing them to spend their final months wherever they call home and surrounded by loved ones.  Hospice teams craft plans of care that ensure pain management, therapy, and treatment that all center on patients’ and family members' goals and wishes.  Hospice care also provides emotional support and advice for family members to become confident caregivers and adjust to the future with grief support for up to a year.

Each year, over one million Medicare beneficiaries receive care from hospices across the US. When a patient is not eligible for hospice care, they may benefit from community-based palliative care which is offered by hospice providers.  Palliative care is patient and family-centered care that optimizes quality of life by preventing, anticipating, and treating suffering.  It also addresses physical, intellectual, emotional, social, and spiritual needs and facilitates patient self-care through access to information and choice. 

Throughout the month of November, HSHS Home Care will provide information about hospice care through social media and health fairs in the communities it serves in both Illinois and Wisconsin.