WHAT IS HOSPICE AND PALLIATIVE CARE?

Hospice Care and Palliative Care share common goals. They each seek to provide symptom relief and pain management to patients. A Hospice is a compassionate, patient-centered approach to medical care and support for people nearing the end of their lives as well as to the families of the dying persons. The care focuses on maintaining dignity, increasing quality of life, and providing comfort, through pain-reducing medications and other means. Hospices recognize that every person's experience will be different; the hospice team creates a plan of care according to the individual needs and wishes of each patient. Palliative Care, on the other hand, is any form of health care that concentrates on reducing the severity of disease symptoms, rather than providing a cure.

Hospice & Palliative staff members are available at all times, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. It is their mission to walk side-by-side with patients and to offer support, not only for dealing with physical symptoms, but also for emotional and spiritual needs. This support extends to family members and helps them cope with their own unique emotional and spiritual concerns. Through a team of healthcare professionals, Hospice & Palliative care services may include ."

• Hospice & Palliative Care are extremely beneficial to the elderly, to chronically ill persons and to patients recuperating from an illness or surgery.

• Medications and other methods of pain and symptom control.. 

• Additional medications, medical equipment and supplies necessary to promote comfort at home or in other hospice settings. 

• Medical care focused on maintaining patient comfort, including frequent assessments and help for family members 

• Assistance with personal care and the activities of daily living. 

• Coordination of community resources and help to the patient and family with non-medical concerns. The healthcare professionals can help family members mend damaged relationships, plan for the future and ease emotional difficulties. 

• Bereavement services to help patients and families deal with grief. Grief support services continue for 13 months after the death of a patient. 

• Volunteers to provide companionship and emotional support and to offer help in many different ways. 

SOME IMPORTANT FACTS 

The term “Hospice & Palliative” implies not a place per se but a special kind of care focusing on relief of pain, symptom control, and spiritual and emotional support. In this regard, care is provided to both the patient and family caregivers. Hospice & Palliative care can take place in a variety of places such as homes, hospitals, nursing homes, assisted living facilities and or in the most desired place i.e. a specially designed and constructed facility with professional management, where the person can be surrounded by family and familiar settings in a natural environment.

• Hospice & Palliative care services are becoming more and more expensive. These costs can be paid by individuals, family members, government institutions and/or employers under healthcare benefits programs or healthcare insurance plans. The expenditures for medicines related to the life-limiting illness can also be incorporated into the payment plans above.

• Hospice & Palliative care is not about “giving up” but rather about focusing on the quality of life, making the wishes of the patient and family caregivers a priority .
• Hospice & Palliative care professionals can provide support and care-giving training to family members and loved ones. Such training includes advice on bereavement support after the death of their loved one.
• It is in the interest of families and patients alike to learn about Hospice & Palliative care sooner rather than later.
• While Hospice & Palliative care candidates may not themselves be facing decisions about care at the end of their lives, it is almost certain that family members, close friends, neighbors, and/or coworkers are struggling with these difficult issues

IMPORTANCE OF HOSPICE AND PALLIATIVE CARE IN THE MUSLIM COUNTRIES 

In this unique project, IMMC Healthcare, LLC will incorporate local cultural and traditional values in a world class hospice care facility. To date, Muslims have been anything but receptive to the idea of hospice care, which can be defined as intensive, palliative nursing care provided to persons with terminal illnesses.

Currently in the Muslim countries, it is family members who usually take care of elderly parents – or of other family members with acute chronic illness – on their final journey in this world, and they usually provide such care at home. While such devotion is exemplary, there is no doubt that it creates problems in many cases. Families may not even be aware of how changes in their life styles or in the quality of their family relationships can compromise their ability to provide home health care on their own. In any case, it is not always possible for family members, even with the assistance of housemaids, to be available around the clock, and they certainly cannot provide the quality of service that is routinely expected from professional nursing aides.