LETTER TO THE EDITOR

National Hospice and
Palliative Care Month
November is National Hospice and Palliative Care Month. This month American Hospice celebrates the people who provide hospice and palliative care. These trained professionals and volunteers from our community offer pain and symptom control, dignity, spiritual and emotional care for dying persons and their loved ones when a cure is not possible.

Hospice is not a place - it is a philosophy of care provided by nurses, doctors, social workers, spiritual caregivers, homecare aides and volunteers. Sometimes people ask me “Why do we need two hospices in Wichita Falls?” The answer is: Choice. Just as with any other products or service offered in our community, people like to have a choice. We have choices in dentists, home health agencies, hospitals and clinics - why not a choice in hospices? When someone is facing a life-limiting illness, this is the time when choices matter most!

This year the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization’s theme is “It must be love.” Love is an integral part of the care that hospice provides. Hospice services go beyond traditional medical care to help the patient and their family cope with the unique difficulties that they are facing. It takes many special and gifted people to provide this type of loving care day after day.

The decision to start hospice care is not an easy one to make. Beginning hospice care in a timely manner is an important key to the best quality of care, even though the decision can be a difficult one. Many hospice patients are ambulatory and only require occasional assistance at the time they are admitted into the hospice program. There is much to learn about hospice care and education helps alleviate fear. To learn more you can visit the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organizaation’s web site at www.caringinfo.org or call them at their toll-free number 1-800-658-8898, or locally you can visit www.americanhospice.info or call the American Hospice office at 940-692-5555.

Marcia Jacobi
Director of Admissions
American Hospice