It can be difficult to accept that a serious illness has become a terminal illness. This is true regardless of age or symptoms or disease. This can be true if the illness has only recently been diagnosed or if it’s been a chronic condition.
When facing a serious illness, there may come a time when treatments are no longer working or you or your loved one may decide to change treatment goals from curative to managing symptoms and focusing on the people and things that matter most. This is when the benefits of hospice care can help.
Dementia is not a specific disease, but rather it is a term used to describe a group of symptoms that affect memory, thinking, decision making, and social abilities. While people often live for years with dementia, it is a progressive condition and ultimately a terminal illness.
If you meet two patients diagnosed with the same terminal illness, you might think that their hospice plan of care would be very similar. But that is not the case. Each person who begins hospice care is a unique individual with different ideas, support, preferences, and goals. Therefore, each patient needs a unique hospice plan of care to address their specific needs.
Parkinson’s disease is a progressive disorder of the nervous system. It affects movement and often includes tremors, stiffness, and difficulty with balance. However, many people with Parkinson’s disease also develop mental health symptoms, including depression, anxiety, and psychosis.
Helping a parent with their end-of-life decisions and caregiving responsibilities can be a challenging experience even for the closest of family members. Yet this reality is something more families are facing everyday.
