One reason to choose in home hospice care is that many patients would like to spend their final days at home. With this service, family members can stay close and take care of their loved one. A hospice team member will come by several times a week and see what is needed. These teams usually consist of a physician, nurses, a social worker, specialists in palliative medicine, a priest or spiritual advisor, nurse assistants and volunteers. The extended group would also include the pharmacist, psychiatric specialists and other therapists. They are available on call 24/7. Hospice Services are available to almost anyone in need. To become eligible, however, a patient may fall under a certain medical condition category, such as an incurable or terminal illness, and diagnosed by a medical professional to have six months or less to live. A signed form from the primary physician and doctor on the hospice team is needed to start care. Of course, it is difficult to estimate life span – some people live longer than expected and continue receiving care. If people get better, they can stop getting this assistance. Hospice care is available to everyone regardless of religion, gender, diagnosis, sexual orientation, or even the ability to pay. These services are covered by Medicare and Medicaid programs. Quite a few private insurance companies also pay for these services – make sure to check if it will be covered and what services are included. Hospice programs will also be able to provide information on coverage. The aim of in home hospice care is to bring palliative care to terminally ill people. It is a way to help those approaching death have confidence, dignity, and peace. Hospice care brings humane charity and compassion to those in need. Proper care usually helps people live longer and experience fewer side effects from chemotherapy and other medications. Other helpful activities like physiotherapy, art, music, and massage therapy, are offered to patients to keep them engaged. The attending physician or nurse will be able to help with finding in home care or a facility close by. You may also search online to find a reputable provider of hospice care. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7234832

Public interest in hospice services is rising as palliative care needs continue to mount every day in the first world and developing nations. Already, more nations are paying serious attention to the provisions that most established institutions offer. Capacity building activities in various nations are also giving expansive elbow room for the practice to prosper. The level of palliative care among nations is expected to improve as the combined experiences in various locations-from institutional to in-home hospice care services, from the St. Christopher’s Hospice in London to as a far as the NGO program-driven efforts in Zambia-contribute to a wider public acceptance.

Already, there are more than 150 hospice care in long beach countries actively engaged in delivering hospice and palliative care or some semblance of them. The key to the successful implementation of palliative and hospice services lies in understanding its benefits and appreciating how such a movement started.

The modern hospice care that we know today is a philosophy movement that focuses on the amelioration of a terminally ill patient’s symptoms, which are physical, emotional, spiritual, or social in nature. This contemporary concept is an interdisciplinary approach to providing comprehensive end-of-life care and was generally acknowledged to have been started by Dame Cicely Saunders, who founded St. Christopher’s Hospice in London in 1967. Two years later, a former Yale University nursing school dean, Florence S. Wald brought the hospice movement to the United States after attending a lecture by Saunders. Wald formed an interdisciplinary team of doctors, clergy, and nurses and founded the Connecticut Hospice in Branford in 1974. Shortly after, similar institutions have sprung up and espoused sundry programs that look into the needs of dying patients. As the numbers grew, the US Congress compelled Medicare to pay for hospice services. This governmental action in 1982 has placed hospice treatment in mainstream medical practice and has made a precedent for other nations that intend to set up similar health welfare programs.

In Africa, for example, the Hospice Palliative Care Association of South Africa was formed in 1987 and has grown to include about 120 member organizations in 2006. In 1993, the Hospice Africa Uganda started accommodating patients in a two-bedroom house and developed a model service to help poorer beneficiaries.

In Asia, the Canossian sisters, a Catholic religious order in Singapore, started a volunteer in home hospice care service in 1987. The collaboration between the Mongolian government and activists has also resulted to a palliative care plan being incorporated into the national health plan.