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Cypress Basin Hospice staff pictured with City of Sulphur Springs Mayor Norman Sanders presenting the 2019 National Hospice Month Proclamation. Courtesy/ Cypress Basin Hospice
Healthcare
Hospice is not a place but is high-quality care that enables patients and families to focus on living as fully as possible despite a life-limiting illness. Palliative care brings this holistic model of care to people earlier in the course of a serious illness.
November is National Hospice and Palliative Care Month. Hospice and palliative care programs across the country are reaching out to help people understand all that hospice and palliative care offer.
“It is essential that people understand that hospice and palliative care is not giving up; it is not the abandonment of care; it is not reserved for the imminently dying,” said Edo Banach, president and CEO of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization. “Hospice is a successful model of person-centered care that brings hope, dignity and compassion when they are most needed. This is one reason that the national My Hospice Campaign was launched this year.”
Every year, nearly 1.5 million Medicare beneficiaries receive care from hospices in this country, reports NHPCO. Hospice and palliative care programs provide pain management, symptom control, psychosocial support and spiritual care to patients and their family caregivers when a cure is not possible.
“Hospice is about living in the face of a terminal illness. Hospice is here to support you, comfort you and empower you. Hospice is a team of caring individuals who seek to meet our patients’ and their family’s needs where they are, when they need it most. Hospice isn’t about dying but is about living the rest of your days the best way you can, however that may look to you,” said Niki Huffman, director of community relations and development.
Throughout the month of November, Cypress Basin Hospice, 950 Main St. in Sulphur Springs, will be joining organizations across the nation hosting activities that will help the community understand how important hospice and palliative care can be.
More information about hospice, palliative care, and advance care planning is available from Cypress Basin Hospice at www.cbhospice.org or call 903-951-1194.