November is National Hospice and Palliative Care Month

Delaware Hospice and Delaware Palliative join the nation in recognizing November as National Hospice and Palliative Care Month.

For more than 39 years, Delaware Hospice and Delaware Palliative have helped provide comfort and dignity to more than 105,000 people, allowing them to spend quality time wherever they call home, surrounded by their loved ones.

Delaware Hospice and Delaware Palliative ensure that pain management, therapies and treatments all support a plan of care centered on the person’s goals.

Hospice and palliative care also provides emotional support and advice to help family members become confident caregivers and adjust to the future with grief support. Coping with a serious or life-limiting illness is not easy. Working with doctors and hospitals, navigating the maze of care needs, figuring out insurance coverage and taking care of a family, while coping with emotional, physical and spiritual needs can be overwhelming. Delaware Hospice and Delaware Palliative offer families relief of these burdens, as well as the gifts of choice, comfort and care throughout this special time of their lives.

Throughout November, Delaware Hospice and Delaware Palliative will be joining organizations across the nation hosting  virtual community activities. “It is essential that people understand that hospice and palliative care is not giving up, it is not the abandonment of care, and it is not reserved for the imminently dying,” said Edo Banach, JD, National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization president and CEO. “Hospice is a successful model of person-centered care that brings hope, dignity and compassion when they are most needed.”

Delaware Hospice and Delaware Palliative are adapting their health and safety procedures to continue to provide care and support to families and patients with a life-limiting illness during this time. Clinicians have increased safety measures to keep patients and families safe. Delaware Hospice’s bereavement department is offering virtual support and resources to help families during these difficult times.

Susan D. Lloyd, RN, MSN, president and CEO of Delaware Hospice, said, “Delaware Hospice and Delaware Palliative provide quality care, comfort and support at a time when it is needed the most. We believe that understanding an illness and the care options available is important for patients and families so they can decide on the care they want and deserve.”

Lloyd said, “Hospice care and palliative care is about quality of life. With the help of Delaware Hospice and Delaware Palliative, patients and families can focus on what’s most important, living as fully as possible in spite of an illness.”

The multidisciplinary teams at Delaware Hospice and Delaware Palliative provide expert pain and symptom management, support and spiritual care to the entire family unit.

For more information about how Delaware Hospice or Delaware Palliative can help patients and families coping with a life-limiting illness, call 302-478-5707 or go to delawarehospice.org or delawarepalliative.org.