LAURINBURG – Throughout the month of November, Scotland Regional Hospice will be joining organizations across the nation in promoting the importance of hospice care, advance care planning, and grief support in recognition of National Hospice and Palliative Care Month.
Laurinburg proclaimed November as National Hospice and Palliative Care Month as Councilwoman Mary Jo Adams signed the proclamation while surrounded by Scotland Regional Hospice staff in a ceremony at Morrison Manor.
“Hospice is a wonderful and needed service in our community,” said Adams. “I encourage citizens to increase their understanding and awareness of care at the end of life and to discuss their end of life wishes with their families. Thank you so much (to the staff and volunteers) for everything that you do.”
For nearly 35 years, Scotland Regional Hospice has helped provide comfort and dignity to thousands of people in our community, allowing them to spend their final moments at home surrounded by their loved ones. Hospice uses a holistic approach when caring for the patient and their family, friends, and caregivers. Hospice care ensures that symptom management, therapies, and treatments all support a plan of care that is centered on the person’s goals.
“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, president and CEO of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization. “Hospice is a successful model of person-centered care that brings hope, dignity and compassion when they are most needed.”
Every year, nearly 1.5 million Medicare beneficiaries receive care from hospices in this country, reports NHPCO. Hospice is unique in that it offers an interdisciplinary team approach to treatment that includes expert medical care, comprehensive pain management and emotional and spiritual care. Caring for the whole person allows the team to address each patient’s unique needs and challenges. In addition to caring for patients, hospice offers services for families and loved ones that provide emotional support and advice to help family members become confident caregivers and adjust to the future with grief support for up to a year.
“The people who work at hospice – it is not a job for us, it’s a mission,” explained Dr. Valeriana Esteves-Jute, Scotland Regional Hospice medical director. “We are a family. We know how to care for our patients because we’ve all been there ourselves. Their goals become our goals.
“Twenty years ago, I was the one receiving that phone call,” Esteves-Jute continued. “Mom has five weeks to live. I was in shock. We use those moments to help others. Their families become our family. Love is what gets us through it. That love is what makes me continue. That love comes out each time I see someone with the same look on their face that I had.”
One of the primary purposes for the original hospice movement in the United States over 40 years ago was to reduce the number of people who were dying in hospitals. Hospice care allows the terminally ill to be cared for in the privacy and comfort of their homes rather than the often crowded hospital environment.
Since not all symptoms can be managed in the home, inpatient facilities, like Scotland Regional Hospice’s Morrison Manor, were built to provide a homelike setting with 24-hour clinical care. It is a benefit that many hospice providers in our area do not offer.
“There is no better care than what you get at Morrison Manor,” shared Susan Britt of her mother’s stay at Morrison Manor. “They made her feel comfortable and they were good to us as well. They were right there for anything we needed.
“I really appreciated the privacy,” Britt continued. “They would come into the room, close the door, and make it all about us. I was able to go home and rest assured that everyone at Morrison Manor could take care of her. I did not have to worry. They would call anytime there were any changes.”
Hospices are also some of the best providers of community-based palliative care. Palliative care delivers expertise to improve quality of life and relief from pain. It can be provided at any time during an illness – during and after treatment, from diagnosis on.
The best time to learn about hospice or palliative care – and to make plans for the kind of care you or a loved one would want – is before you are faced with a medical crisis. One of the most frequent comments we hear from families is, “Why did we wait so long before calling hospice?”
For information on hospice and palliative care, call Scotland Regional Hospice at 910-276-7176 or visit them on the web at scotlandhospice.org.
Deon Cranford III is the director of public relations for Scotland Regional Hospice.
