Hospice care can take care of 'spiritual and emotional' needs of patients, family members

Hospice is a charged word. It conjures images of sickness, separation and not much hope, so people tend to avoid confronting it.

But its negative connotation is largely misappropriated. However painful the idea may be, hospice care, when confronted realistically, can greatly increase a patient's quality of life, making the unfortunate ordeal more bearable.

Claire Kneer, hospice program manager at Saint Francis Medical Center, explained that misconceptions are one of the biggest and most unfortunate obstacles facing hospice-care providers.

"Most people think of hospice care as the last 48 to 72 hours of life," she said. "Six months or less to live. But that's not the case in a lot of situations. Cancer patients who decide to forego treatment, for example: If they say, 'I just don't want treatment,' then hospice care is an option."

The other hurdle caregivers face is a product of people's discomfort with the idea of hospice care: late referrals.

Vickie Schnurbusch, home-care services administrator for SoutheastHEALTH, said that since most people prefer to put off hospice care, the care that they eventually receive is more complicated.

"It's difficult for patients and families, to be sure," she said. "They feel like they're giving up when they choose hospice care, but they're not. The sooner we receive them, the more effectively we can manage their symptoms."

Hospice care not only addresses the medical needs of a patient, but also their spiritual and emotional needs as well as those of a patient's family members and loved ones.

"We have a number of resources available as part of our hospice care," Kneer explained. "Social workers, chaplains and personal care, which for the patient, means medical care and for the families means things like baby-sitting or keeping the patient company if the family has errands that need to be done for an hour or something. What hospice is designed to do is transfer people through that timeline."

Schurnbusch pointed out that physical and occupational therapists are often part of hospice care as well.

"It's all about giving people a better quality of life," she said.

And, Schurnbusch explained, a new partnership between SoutheastHEALTH and Perry County Memorial Hospital is facilitating the need for hospice care and serving the community in new ways.

"We've been working on it since August, but we just started [the partnership] in November," she said. "Since we've only been operating for about a month, we haven't seen a big change in our referrals yet, but we feel like we'll be able to serve more patients."

The new expanded coverage area stretches roughly 60 miles from Cape Girardeau in all directions.

"If we could reach one additional patient that may not have otherwise had us caring for them, then we feel we've been successful," Schurnbush said.

tgraef@semissourian.com

388-3627