Hospice. It’s Not What You Think It is ….. It’s Better
HOW HOSPICE SOUTHLAND HELPS THOSE END-OF-LIFE PATIENTS DIE AT HOME.
Home based palliative care happens to about 2/3’s of all our patients. That’s right most people prefer to die at home if they can and we aim to help them.
What is needed to be able to achieve this? Firstly, good communication and a well-integrated team. This means that the GP, the District Nurse, the Hospice Nurse and Doctor, the spiritual coordinator and our counselling team all work together in an integrated way with you as the patient our most important person.
End of life conditions can be painful, there is no getting away from this, but with our special nurses, Nurse Practitioners and Doctors your pain should be manageable, and your physical symptoms helped. This may be being able to be kept clean and feeling fresh.
Adult nappies are quite often needed, in this day and age, they are great and help keep moisture away from the skin so that it doesn’t get raw. End of life can mean being on a morphine pump and our nurses can teach your family how to manage this, it will help manage your pain. We also prescribe medication for constipation and ensure you have the right equipment to help you “go to the loo”. Dry mouth is a terrible thing, just having a lemonade ice block to be rubbed around your mouth to help ease the dryness of the mouth that often comes with dying. These are all things that help you have a “good death”.
Sometimes it’s necessary to come into the Hospice, not because your time is near but to get your symptoms and pain managed and then you can go home again. I have people say, “I thought that was it for Mum when she came into hospice, but she was home again 3 days later and feeling much more at ease, with the pain managed”.
Holistic care is the name of the game. This means not just physical pain is treated but the whole family and whānau are cared for, we acknowledge people’s roots and have a Living Legacy service where our patients can tell their life story and have all the photos they want put into their book.
This means that once they have passed their family have a written and pictorial memory of them.
We also care for the spirit, a very important part of end of life.
A good death is where all four things come together and the patient along with their family have managed to find answers to their questions and can focus on coming to terms with their grief and saying goodbye.
A home-based death can and is in the main a good and peaceful death for our patients.