Hospice and Palliative Care Provide Comfort, Dignity, and Support for Seniors and Families
Author: Debbie Humphrey
On January 18, 2025, my vibrant aunt was smiling and dancing at her 83rd birthday party. Just over six weeks later, she was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer, and her end-of-life journey began. It was a significant blow to her and our entire family.
Her oncologist ordered Keytruda infusions to help slow the progression of the colon and liver cancer, but it did not work as hoped. She had surgery to remove a tumor blockage in her colon, which resulted in her receiving a colostomy bag, which required palliative care and a whole new skill set to manage.
By mid-summer, PET scans showed the cancer had grown and spread, and chemotherapy was no longer an option. My aunt was dying and would not live to see her 84th birthday.
Palliative care had begun in the spring, as friends and family caregivers worked together to get her to doctor appointments, treatments, and scans, and keep her as comfortable as possible.
Hospice care was recommended by her doctors when there was nothing more they could do, and she met with a nurse, social worker, and chaplain from a local hospice agency. However, she was not ready to accept hospice care, so it wasn’t initiated until the final days of her life in early October. She died peacefully on October 3, 2025.
November 2–8, 2025, marks Hospice and Palliative Care Week, a time to raise awareness and understanding about these important end-of-life care services that provide comfort, dignity, and support for seniors and their families.
Hospice Care
Hospice Care is ordered for people who are in the later stages of an incurable or critical illness, like cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, or dementia, and nearing the end of their life, typically with a life expectancy of 6 months or less. Hospice nurses treat symptoms and negative effects of the illness to keep their patients as comfortable as possible.
According to the Hospice Foundation, “Most hospices follow Medicare requirements to provide the following services, as necessary, to manage the primary illness for which someone receives hospice care.”
Hospice care involves:
- Time and services of the care team, including visits to the patient’s location by the hospice physician, nurse, medical social worker, home health aide, and chaplain/spiritual adviser
- Medication for symptom control, including pain relief
- Medical equipment like a hospital bed, wheelchairs or walkers, and medical supplies such as oxygen, bandages, and catheters
- Physical and occupational therapy*
- Speech-language pathology services*
- Dietary counseling*
- Any other Medicare-covered services needed to manage pain and other symptoms related to the terminal illness, as recommended by the hospice team
- Short-term inpatient care (e.g. when adequate pain and symptom management cannot be achieved in the home setting)
- Short-term respite care for family caregivers (e.g. temporary relief from caregiving to avoid or address “caregiver burnout”)
- Grief and loss counseling for the patient and loved ones, who may experience anticipatory grief. Grief counseling is provided to family members for up to 13 months after a death.
*Access to these services is determined on a case-by-case basis depending on assessment of the hospice team, goals of care as established by the hospice team, and disease progression and symptom burden.
Palliative Care
The National Institute on Aging says, “Palliative care is specialized medical care for people living with a serious illness, such as cancer or heart failure. Patients in palliative care may receive medical care for their symptoms, or palliative care, along with treatment intended to cure their serious illness. Palliative care is meant to enhance a person's current care by focusing on quality of life for them and their family.”
Palliative care is:
- Helpful to any senior at any stage of illness.
- Initiated to improve the quality of life and symptoms for seniors or any older person experiencing general discomfort or disability.
- Includes a team of professionals to provide medical, social, emotional, and practical support, like specialists, doctors, nurses, social workers, nutritionists, professional caregivers, and chaplains.
- Provided in hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, outpatient palliative care clinics, specialized clinics, or the patient’s home.
These descriptions of hospice and palliative care services are meant to serve as guidelines of what to expect should the time come that you or a senior loved one needs specialized end-of-life care.
During Hospice and Palliative Care Week and over the upcoming holidays, please pay particular attention to your senior loved ones who live alone and may be challenged by activities of daily living. If they appear to be struggling or they seem lonely and isolated, I am happy to offer a FREE Consultation to determine how Home Helpers can make life easier.
In addition, our compassionate caregivers often work collaboratively with hospice personnel to provide the end-of-life care and support that is required.
We, at Home Helpers® Clearwater, are honored to have been ranked among the Activated Insights Top 100 Leaders in Experience for home care providers in 2025 and to have received the Best of Home Care® Provider of Choice, the Best of Home Care® Employer of Choice, and the Best of Home Care® Leader in Experience Awards in 2025, along with the Caring Super Star 2025 Award.
Home Helpers Clearwater proudly serves male and female seniors, veterans, and differently abled individuals in Bayonet Point, Clearwater, Clearwater Beach, Dunedin, Gulfport, Holiday, Hudson, Largo, Madeira Beach, New Port Richey, North Redington Beach, Oldsmar, Palm Harbor, Pass A Grille, Pass A Grille Beach, Port Richey, Redington Shores, Safety Harbor, Saint Petersburg, Seminole, South Pasadena, Tarpon Springs, Tierra Verde, Treasure Island, Trinity, and surrounding areas. Home Helpers®…we are Making Life Easier® 727.942.2539
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