With life comes death. Death is part of the cycle, and no matter how fantastic our medical care is, one day each of us must die. While death is rarely a pleasant topic, our society has become a little more open to discussing death as more publicity is given to having a living will, or health directive, that will express our health care wishes should there be a time when we can't speak for ourselves. Since most of us don't want to die in pain, hospice care is often mentioned is peoples end-of-life documents. When someone's life is pronounced medically terminal, turning to hospice care is a good place to start looking for care.

 

Many people feel that hospice care is only for the last weeks of life. Many, also, aren't aware that most health insurance, as well as Medicare, cover hospice services. The mission of hospice care is to help people die with dignity and without pain. Once a person is medially declared terminal, they qualify for the medical, spiritual and emotional care for which hospice is known.

 

The decision to place a loved one on hospice care is very difficult because we must first overcome the denial of impending death. Both of my parents had hospice care. That's when I learned first hand that no one should have to die in pain. Overcoming denial was a small price to pay for this result.