Some of us with cancer have heard the awful words, “There’s no more we can do.” We have fought the good fight, thrown our best punches, but our cancer is winning. Hospice and home care services are there for exactly that moment.

Hospice care for people who are dying can be found at stand-alone hospice centres, on the palliative care floors of local hospitals and even through volunteer-run charitiable networks of "home hospices" who assist the dying, their family members, and friends with practical and emotional help.

Home hospice
Home hospice is an option for people who want to simply want to stay in their own homes near familiar people and surroundings while their lives end, for those who want more control over how and when to stop taking treatment altogether, or for those who just want to control how certain medications are used.

Home hospice is a team effort that brings many professionals and volunteers into the home. Here are just a few ways that hospice volunteers can help:

• Travelling nurses make house calls to give IVs and maintain pain pumps
• Home care workers come in to change dressings and manage other personal care issues.
• An army of friends and volunteers come in to offer respite to caregivers.
• Therapists or clergy may visit to offer support to the dying, their family, and care-givers.

Some home hospice organizations also rent or loan equipment, such as hospital beds or commodes, to increase comfort levels as the process of dying furthers, but other equipment such as bath and stair lifts, may be impossible to install in particular homes.

On the positive side, this means a community is assembled that revolves around the comfort and care of the dying person. It also means that caregivers are never left to cope on their own to become exhausted or despondent. On the other hand, family privacy can suffer when hospice is involved.

Hospice centers
Care in hospice centers differs from those of other institutions. The atmosphere is usually more homelike and more flexible than that of a hospital ward while providing 24 hour access to professional care, equipment and expertise. They do this while keeping social, pastoral and psychiatric support resources for everyone involved under one roof.

There are usually no restricted visiting hours. Friends and family are generally encouraged to be as involved in as many or as few of the practical aspects of caregiving as they feel comfortable with to maintain intimacy and connection.

While legally-bound to perform certain procedures, most hospice centers tailor their care to the wishes of the dying according to what the stage of cancer they are experiencing.

Unlike hospital wards, which are generally structured to help people recover, hospice centers are structured around the idea of comfort for those who cannot recover. In keeping with this, specialized equipment lets them offer care, such as a robotic lift into a whirlpool bath, that may not be available in a home or hospital setting.

Palliative therapy and hospice
We can rest assured that those of us who are losing our battles with cancer will receive palliative therapy to manage our symptoms and pain and keep us comfortable. As the end of our lives near, we will receive palliative care in a hospital, nursing home or in our own homes. We may want to line up a “hospice” service. Our hospice team will include:

• Nurses
• Social worker
• Volunteers
• Counselors
• Home assistants for needs like bathing and feeding

If you decide to remain at home, the team will help your family members with their own physical, emotional and spiritual needs. The hospice nurses will help us deal with our pain by giving pain medication intravenously, pill, injections, or drops under the tongue if we’ve lost the ability to swallow.

Under hospice, we and our loved ones can get help addressing our anxieties and fears, mending important relationships and exploring spiritual issues. Many health insurance plans, including Medicare and Medicaid, cover hospice care.

Resources to help
In addition to finding hospice care, we sometimes need help dealing with the larger issues that death can invoke, such as how to live to the fullest even when death is imminent, how to deal with grief, or the cost of a funeral. Here are a few resources that offer help:

• Dying Well is an online resource for people facing a terminal illness
  

• Medicare provides an online pamphlet outlining their Hospice Benefits
  

• The Compassionate Friends National Headquarters offers support after the death of a child
  

• The National Funeral Directors Association offers advice on making funeral arrangements
  

• The National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization provides information about hospice programs and professionals
  

See also

• Living with cancer
• Facing end of life issues
• The memory wall
• Giving back