Hospice services are available for people with life-threatening illnesses who can no longer benefit from curative treatment and who usually have life expectancies of six months or less. The focus is on caring, not on curing, and in most cases care is provided in the patient’s home.

Hospice care involves a team-oriented approach to expert medical care, pain management, and emotional and spiritual support expressly tailored to the individual and the family’s needs and wishes.

Hospice services typically include:

• physician services for the medical direction of the child’s care, provided by either the child’s personal physician or a physician affiliated with a hospice program
• regular home care visits by registered nurses and licensed practical nurses to monitor the child’s condition, maintain comfort, and provide appropriate care
• home health aide and homemaker services
• chaplain services for the child and family, if desired
• social work and counseling services
• medical equipment (such as hospital beds)
• medical supplies (such as bandages and catheters)
• volunteer support to assist families with such things as running errands, preparing light meals, staying with the child to give family members a break, and lending emotional support
• physical, speech, and occupational therapy, if needed
• dietary counseling
• bereavement counseling

Members of the hospice staff make regular visits to assess the child and to provide additional care or other services. Hospice staff are on-call 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

While each hospice has its own policies concerning payment for care, it is a tradition of hospice care to offer services based upon need, rather than the ability to pay.

For more information on hospice care, including how to choose a hospice program, call the National Hospice Foundation at 703/516-4928, or visit the website at www.hospiceinfo.org The national Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO) represents most hospice programs in the United States. To find an NHPCO member hospice call 800/658-8898, or visit their web site at www.nhpco.org