Once diagnosing someone with a terminal disease, the doctor may probably note hospice care or palliative care. Both are helpful for seriously ill patients to increase their quality of life and provide more comfort to both patients and caregivers. However, you might get a little confused considering these similar care options. Let’s see what these two are about, how they differ, and how many similarities they have.
What Is Hospice Care?
When looking up the Hospice definition, you’ll probably come upon that it is a type of health care that focuses on relieving the pain and suffering of a terminally ill person, fulfilling their emotional and spiritual needs at the end of life. Hospice care is for patients who stopped their treatment of disease, as it was no longer slowing or curing the illness progression. Their life expectancy is no more than 6 months. The Hospice team works both with patients and their caregivers, providing medical and emotional support. The member of the team is available 24/7 and may visit the home of the patient quite regularly.
What Is Palliative Care?
Palliative care is medical care for people with a serious illness with pain and breathing difficulties, including the symptoms of Cardiovascular disease, Cancer, Chronic respiratory disease, AIDS, and more. Palliative treatment aims to mitigate physical, mental, and emotional symptoms and can be provided alongside long-term curative therapies. It can be provided at the setting by your choice, whether it’s home, hospital, or nursing home.
Palliative Care VS Hospice
Hospice is a subcategory of palliative care. In other words, all hospice palliative care, but not all palliative care is hospice. Both focus on relieving the pain of seriously ill patients, putting their wishes and the wishes of the caregiver first. The healthcare professionals work closely with patients to address their physiological, physical, and spiritual needs, emphasizing pain relief and symptom management during the process. However, there are differences to consider. Firstly, the patient eligible for hospice care doesn’t get any treatment because of its ineffectiveness, while palliative care patients can get their palliative treatment alongside long-term medical therapies. Secondly, hospice patients should have no more than 6 months of projected life, which is not a requirement of palliative care. Thirdly, unlike palliative care, hospice concentrates more on pain relief and end-life comfort rather than a cure.
If you need to choose hospice care, MD Choice Hospice Care is here to assist you.
Feel free to contact us. Take care of you and your relatives.