The Hospice Team
Hospice care is a family-centered approach that includes, at a minimum, doctors, nurses, home health aides, social workers, chaplains, counselors, and trained volunteers. They work together focusing on the dying person’s needs; physical, emotional, or spiritual. The goal is to help keep the person as pain-free as possible, with loved ones nearby until death. The hospice team develops a care plan that meets each person's individual needs for pain management and symptom control.
The team usually consists of:
Nurses
Home Health Aides
Hospice Physician (or Medical Director)
Clergy
Social Workers
Bereavement, or other counselors
Trained Volunteers
Speech, Physical, and Occupational Therapists, if needed
The person's personal physician may also be included
In most cases, family members or loved ones are the person's primary care givers and Lion Hospice recognizes their own special needs for support. As a relationship with the hospice begins, hospice staff will want to know how best to support the person and family during this time.
Among its responsibilities, the hospice team:
- Manages the person’s pain and symptoms;
- Provides emotional support;
- Provides needed medications, medical supplies, and equipment;
- Coaches loved ones on how to care for the person;
- Delivers special services like speech and physical therapy when needed;
- Makes short-term inpatient care available when pain or symptoms become too difficult to manage at home, or the caregiver needs respite time; and
- Provides grief support to surviving loved ones and friends.
Family Comment:
"My appreciation for all you have done! I thank God there is a program like yours!"