subject: Hospice Care And Palliative Care [print this page] Hospice care and palliative care are two different things but often both hospice care and palliative care are provided at the same time.
Hospice care includes services such as food services and providing meals. Hospice care may include a live-in hospice who helps people clean and cook and shop. Hospice care may include a live-in nurse who provides care such as helping people dress and shower and may help in basic needs of people such as getting to the bathroom. Hospice care is essentially services that help people live life by assisting them in performing day-to-day life tasks that cannot be done without the assistance and support of volunteers. Hospice care could be done by volunteers who are not paid or volunteers who are paid for their work. Hospice care can be services that are provided and organized by a hospice care organization. Hospice care could take place in a patients home or hospice care could provide all those same services and support within a hospice care facility where volunteers and nurses take care of many hospice care patients at one time. Hospice care may include patients who are terminally ill whether elderly or young. When most people think of hospice care they think of the elderly, but hospice care could provide the same services for baby patients or child patients who are terminally ill and are sent home to live the rest of their life with their family rather than in a hospital. But the main difference between hospice care and palliative care is that hospice care helps their patients in more of the day-to-day life tasks as well as medical support and services. Palliative care focuses mostly on just medical support and services.
Palliative care is like hospice care in that palliative care services and support take place in the home of people and patients. However, unlike hospice care, palliative care services will not include support and assistance with daily life tasks. Palliative care is almost always for the terminally ill patients whereas hospice care isn't always for the terminally ill as hospice care is for the elderly and ill who are patients who need services and support for an unknown amount of time. Although palliative care is usually for an unknown amount of time depending upon how long the terminally ill patients will live, palliative care services are provided mostly by medical professionals such as doctors. Hospice care services is not always provided by professionals and hospice care services doesn't require the people giving the hospice care services to have the expertise of doctors and professionals. Palliative care services providers can answer more medical questions and concerns of patients family and friends. Palliative care services unlike hospice care services cannot be done by any volunteers. Palliative care services must be done by professionals because palliative care services is all medical support and services. Palliative care services may be as simple as professional volunteers coming to the houses of patients to teach them and their care-givers how to use medical equipment. Palliative care services also may include the simple, regular visits of medical professionals to their patients homes to give medical advice and take medical tests, whereas hospice care is more regular daily care.
