Many people associate grief with death, and the two are certainly often intertwined, but not always. Grief is triggered by loss, and loss can come in many forms. Many patients and families suffer grief at the time the patient receives their terminal diagnosis. Here at Suncrest Home Health and Hospice of Chicago, we are intimately familiar with all stages of the grieving process, and we work hard to help hospice patients and family members work through them.
Stages of Grief
At some point, you may have read about the five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. Recently, more stages have been added, and some models include guilt, shock and other feelings as well.
While these stages are listed in what appears to be the order in which you can expect to go through them, the truth is that each individual may experience the stages differently. They may experience them in a different order, or they may go back and forth among the stages.
Hope in Hospice
When a patient receives a terminal diagnosis, the reverberations can be intense and long-lasting, even if they already suspected their condition was serious. It is likely that at some point in life, we have all anticipated bad news but still held out hope that it would never arrive. And when you receive your diagnosis, some of that hope is destroyed.
Some hospice patients hold onto hope until the very end of life. This can be comforting and uplifting. Hope for peace and happiness in a patient’s last weeks or days is both reassuring and achievable.
Hospice Care in Chicago
In order for patients to be eligible to receive hospice care, doctors must determine that the patient has six months or less to live. Oftentimes hospice patients under the care of our Chicago team have a cancer diagnosis. They may have been fighting their cancer for many years, or they may have been told suddenly at a routine doctor’s appointment that they are in the advanced stages of cancer.
Whether you have had the knowledge for a little or a long time, learning that your chances of beating your disease are low is difficult and painful. Patients and family members alike wrestle with feelings about how unfair it is that the patient has been stricken with this terminal disease as well as fear for what the future holds for its progression and for the lives of family members after the patient’s passing.
Suncrest Home Health and Hospice
The hospice nurses, social workers, home health aides, spiritual advisors and others at Suncrest Home Health and Hospice are well-trained in handling and managing grief and other feelings associated with illness and loss. Our goal is to provide compassionate care in hospice to both patients and family members. Reach out to us at any time to request help with grief and other issues associated with hospice services.
