When your loved one is ill, everything in life can seem more difficult and confusing. You worry about their health, their care and possibly how much time they have left to live. At the same time, you may be overwhelmed by trying to figure out what type of care they need and whether insurance will pay for it. It’s a lot to deal with. The social workers and hospice nurses at Suncrest Home Health and Hospice in Austin can help. Below, we go over some common treatment terms and what they mean.
What Is Hospice Care?
Hospice care is for patients who decide to give up curative treatment. In hospice care, we provide no lifesaving drugs or treatments — only pain relief or drugs that make patients more comfortable, such as antidepressants or antianxiety meds.
Receiving treatment for an illness or a disease can be exhausting and painful. Worse, it may not help prolong life. Many people are willing to take the risk. However, after a period of time, when it seems apparent the therapies aren’t working, the patient may opt to stop.
This is a difficult decision. But once patients make the decision, many discover a new sense of peace. They have come to terms with their impending death and accepted it. This, coupled with the absence of the physical stress that treatment puts on the body, helps patients live out their last days in comfort and ease.
What Is Comfort Care?
Comfort care is a catchall term that may refer to several types of care. It can refer to hospice care, because in hospice care, we provide both physical and mental comfort care, including medication and therapy. It can also mean palliative care, which is comfort care given to those who are still undergoing treatment for their illness or disease.
In its broadest terms, comfort care is holistic care. It usually includes pain relievers, which may be administered orally or intravenously. It can also include antidepressants, anti-anxiety medications, sleeping pills or other medications that help ease discomfort.
Comfort care also encompasses more than physical comfort. Dealing with a terminal illness can be stressful and difficult, and oftentimes a counselor or therapist can offer help. Those facilities or agencies that offer comfort care work with therapists and counselors who specialize in coping with illness, grief, death and dying. Sometimes family members are included in sessions, or therapists can offer referrals to family members to schedule their own individual sessions.
If the patient desires it, comfort care also can include visits from a spiritual advisor. This can be a pastor, priest, rabbi or other leader in your religious faith, or if the patient is not affiliated with any particular religion, they could be provided with nondenominational services.
Care Options from Suncrest of Austin
As Suncrest Home Health and Hospice, we provide a full range of comfort services as part of hospice care. These include pain management meds, mental health meds, sleep aids, and services from counselors, therapists and spiritual advisors.
To learn more about hospice care and comfort care in the Austin, Texas, area, contact us today.
