End-of-life care can be brought into the home for those who want to stay close to their loved ones when they die. Hospice care provides a range of services to ease a person’s final weeks or months and lighten the burden on their family.
Eligibility for Hospice
Hospice care is provided to patients who have a fatal illness, are no longer seeking curative treatment, and are expected to live no longer than six months. This must be certified by a doctor and the patient must certify that they have chosen hospice rather than continue efforts to recover.
Hospice Services
Hospice care is centered around comforting a patient and assisting the patient’s primary caregivers with the struggles of end-of-life care. A hospice team can include the patient’s personal physician, a hospice doctor, nurses, counselors, spiritual advisors, and hospice aides. Workers are there to provide a range of services:
- Psychological and spiritual counseling for the family and patient
- A doctor to provide care in the home and transport patient to medical appointments
- Assistance with daily tasks like feeding, bathing, clothing, and transporting the patient
- Direction for the family on caring for their loved one
- Pain management and medication to ease the patient’s discomfort
- General assistance and companionship for the family and patient
Planning
For a loved one’s wishes to be fulfilled, it’s important to have conversations before hospice becomes necessary. To ease worry on the family and patient when the day comes, talk with your loved ones about their wishes for their death and caregiving.
Important wishes should be put in writing and legal documents should be filed to ensure that everything is in place if a person becomes unable to articulate their desires. Filing an advance directive including a living will and power of attorney will prevent unnecessary confusion if a person becomes incapacitated.
An advance directive is a legal document that can be filed by an adult 19 years or older in Alabama that lays out the wishes of a person regarding their medical care if they become unable to speak for themselves. In Alabama, the form includes a living will section to indicate whether a person wants to receive life support if they become terminally ill or permanently unconscious and articulate other wishes regarding end-of-life care and a section to indicate whether a person wants to assign a proxy to make important decisions and what powers they would have. A proxy can be given limited powers to only follow the wishes written in the advance directive, powers to follow the directive and make decisions on other issues which may arise, or powers to make final decisions even if they contradict what is written in the directive. The form can be found here.
A durable financial power of attorney form gives a person powers to make financial decisions on behalf of the principal, the person who signs the form, in the case of them becoming unable to make decisions for themselves. Medical power of attorney assigns a person to make healthcare decisions on behalf of the principal in the case of them being unable to make decisions for themselves. A durable medical power of attorney form can be found here, and durable financial power of attorney here.
Each of these documents requires two non-blood-related witness signatories.
Having these documents codifying wishes and assigning trusted loved ones to make decisions can prevent unnecessary strife and keep as much focus as possible on caring for and comforting a person during their last days.
Cost of Hospice
Medicare covers all end-of-life care services deemed reasonable.