What is Hospice Care?
Hospice is specialized medical care, where we care for not just the patient but the family as well. With hospice, your loved one and family will receive support from a team of professionals dedicated to providing a care plan tailored to your family and your loved one’s wishes.
The term “Hospice” comes from the same root word as “hospitality” and can be traced back to early Western Civilization when it was used to describe a place of shelter and rest for weary or sick travelers on long journeys. The term was first applied to specialized care for patients nearing the end of their life in 1967, at St. Christopher’s Hospice in a residential suburb of London. Today, the term “Hospice” refers to a steadily growing concept of humane and compassionate care which is implemented in a variety of settings including in a patient’s homes, hospitals, nursing homes, long-term care facilities or free-standing inpatient hospice facilities.
Hospice is not a place, but rather a philosophy that focuses on the well-being of the whole person. High Desert Hospice services address the physical, emotional, social and spiritual needs of our patients and their loved ones. We provide care in a location that best meets their needs and desires. These locations include but are not limited to: home, group homes, assisted living facilities, and nursing facilities.
The philosophy of High Desert Hospice is to provide care for those in the last phase of a life-limiting illness. The goal is to allow patients to live as fully and as comfortable as possible. Hospice care seeks to allow patients to carry on a pain-free and alert life. Our staff will also manage other symptoms so that their last days may be spent with dignity and quality at home or in a home-like setting.
High Desert Hospice emphasizes quality of patient life, rather than length of patient life. Hospice neither hastens nor postpones death: it affirms life and regards dying as a normal process. The hospice movement stresses human values that go beyond the physical needs of the patient meeting emotional and spiritual needs as well.
High Desert Hospice considers the entire family to be the unit of care. Patients and their families are included in the decision-making process, and bereavement counseling is provided after the death of their loved ones for up to 13 months.
If you or a loved one have been experiencing frequent falls, emergency room visits, or hospitalizations hospice care may be right for you.
If you have a life-limiting illness and no longer wish to seek aggressive treatment hospice care is for you.