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A crisis can be mental, physical, emotional, or anything else that has a significant impact on your routine. As a caregiver of someone with an advanced life-limiting illness, that crisis may be yours or that of your loved one. In either circumstance, hospice can step in on a short-term basis until the situation is stabilized. Caregiver Crisis: As in parenting, it is difficult to take the time off from your job of caring for a loved one to take care of yourself. How will you provide optimal care, however, if you are in need of a break? How will you keep your job, if you put off required travel? And most importantly, how will you make the people around you feel if you run yourself into the ground? Accepting help may be the most compassionate thing you can do. Patient Crisis: Sometimes a stable patient becomes either mentally or physically unstable. It may require round-the-clock nursing care to get symptoms back under control. If your loved one has unrelieved pain, panic attacks, or anything else that makes it difficult to effectively manage their comfort on your own, it may be time to get help. Every support system has its limits, and hospice is the helping hand that can get things running smoothly again. When an acute medical problem renders someone unstable, or the primary caregiver is not available, that’s a crisis. There is no failure to examine or blame to be cast. No one needs to feel guilty. It just happens. At these times, for the sake of the entire family, having someone step in can be a huge relief. Talking about hospice for the first time can be emotional, but making the call doesn’t change the reality of the situation. While it may be time to get ongoing help for the comfort of the person who is ill, it could be that someone just needs to step in on a short-term basis. Members of a hospice interdisciplinary team can visit and care for the patient in the home for up to 24 hours per day in a crisis. When hospice is utilized 8 to 24 hours a day, it’s called Continuous Care. Some hospice providers, like Journey Hospice in Atlanta, offer all for levels of care. When it is time to have the conversation about hospice, providers can walk you through the options. Most people will tell you that, no matter what level of care is needed, hospice makes a huge difference. Everyone deserves comfort and dignity in the dying process. Hospice can help.
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hospice, hospice care, continuous care, crisis intervention,
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