The general principles of hospice

Holistic, comprehensive care

 

Hospice seeks to improve the life quality of patients. Accordingly, our care extends not only to the physical needs of patients, but also to matters psychological, social and spiritual, and we also help the patients’ families to cope with the illness and  bereavement.

 

Palliative treatment, pain relief

 

Hospice treatment is given to terminal-phase cancer patients. Their conditions typically include painful symptoms and to relieve these is the fundamental purpose of hospice. Pain is relieved continuously and progressively, as a preventive measure, thanks to which pain can be minimized or made to disappear completely. Palliative treatment is personalized, and covers other symptoms as well.

 

Emotional and spiritual support for patients and their families

 

Cancer means a great psychological burden for the patient and their family alike, especially in the last phase of the illness, with the menace of impending death. The psychiatric symptoms that often occur – anxiety, depression, sleep disorder – must be treated. Family members may also require help in preparing for, and coping with bereavement. Emotional and spiritual support for patients and their families forms the basis of hospice.

 

Life-affirming attitude

 

Hospice considers death a part of life, and a process which must not be shortened or artificially prolonged. Loving care may give meaning and content to this phase of the patient’s life.

 

Respecting human dignity

 

In hospice care, the personal dignity of a patient is respected all along. This attitude requires that the patient be approached with honesty, treated as an equal, and informed at all times about their real conditions – tactfully but realistically, encouraging hope under all circumstances. Care in the spirit of hospice requires that the patient be involved. They must know their condition, the origin of their symptoms, the methods of treatment, the expected effects and side effects.

Hospice respects religious beliefs, and provides for the practising of religious rites, whatever the patient’s conviction. The worldview or wishes of an atheist are respected to the same extent.

 

The cooperation of the multidisciplinary team and the family

 

The care is given by a team of experts, which includes a hospice physician, a hospice nurse, a palliative therapist, a psychologist, a priest, a social worker, a physiotherapist and several volunteer aides. Since it is essential that patients can spend their last months in their own homes, with their families, hospice care includes close cooperation with the family, their involvement and continuous presence around the patient.

Free

 

Hospice care is free of charge for everyone, since dignified death is the inalienable right of every person.

 

Changing public attitude

 

Marie de Hennezel says hospice “is a movement that returns death to the space of our consciousness and thoughts, and makes death in our institutions more humane.” Hospice is a special kind of ethos, a philosophy, life lived together with the dying, offering circumstances for the dying in which they can make use of their own physical and spiritual capacities.
The hospice movement hopes to direct public attention to the problems of the dying, to make society more conscious of, and knowledgeable about, death.