Hope Hospice Commemorates National Hospice Month

New Braunfels, TX, October 27, 2013 --(PR.com)-- Hope Hospice, a non-profit, community-owned hospice serving Bexar, Blanco, Caldwell, Comal, Guadalupe, Hays, Kendall, Travis and Wilson counties, joins hospices across the nation in recognizing National Hospice Month. Hope will be recognized for its work in the field of hospice care and the lives of local families at proclamations in city halls and county courts across this service area.

Facts about Hospice Care Everyone Should Know
Hospice isn’t a place. It’s a type of care that focuses on living… living as fully as possible, up until the end of life. Hospice brings comfort, love, and respect to the patients and families they care for.

Considered to be the model for high-quality, compassionate care in the last months of life, hospice care involves a team-oriented approach to care that includes expert medical care, pain-and-symptom management, and emotional and spiritual support. All care is expressly tailored to the patient’s needs and wishes.

Hospice offers the services and support that Americans want when coping with a serious or life-limiting illness. The goal of this type of care is to treat the person instead of the disease, and focus on the family caregivers, not just the individual. The quality of life is emphasized, not its duration.

Just the Facts: National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization reports:

· Hospice usage in the U.S. is growing. Every year, more than 1.65 million Americans with life-limiting illness are cared for by the nation’s 5,100 hospice providers.
· The median length of service for hospice patients is 19.1 days (half of patients receive care for more days, half of patients receive care for fewer days). Yet, more than 35 percent of patients die or are discharged in seven days or less – too short a time to benefit from the full ranges of services a hospice can offer.
· Cancer accounts for less than 38 percent of hospice patients – which surprises many people who mistakenly think hospice only serves cancer patients. The five other leading diagnoses are: heart disease, debility, dementia (this includes Alzheimer’s disease), lung disease, and stroke.
· Hospice is covered under Medicare, Medicaid, most private insurance plans, HMOs and other managed care organizations.
· An estimated 450,000 trained volunteers contribute more than 21 million hours of service every year.
· Research shows that 8 out of 10 Americans would want to stay in their homes surrounded by family and loved ones if they were faced with a life-limiting illness. Hospice makes this happen.

For more information, contact Hope Hospice at (830) 625-7525 or (800) 499-7501 or visit their website www.hopehospice.net.

Hope Hospice is the oldest operating not for profit hospice in the central Texas area between San Antonio and Austin. Hope offers patients the opportunity to take control of their care plan and together with their families make the most of their lives when facing the last months of a life-limiting illness. Patients and families are provided a full team of support including physicians, nurses, home health aides, social workers, chaplains and volunteers to manage pain and symptoms, connect families with available resources and offer emotional and spiritual support. Families are shown how to complete necessary care giving tasks and educated on what to do in a variety of common situations. This education gives them the confidence and skills to keep their loved one at home in the most comfortable setting possible.

Hope Hospice serves Bexar, Blanco, Caldwell, Comal, Guadalupe, Hays, Kendall, Travis and Wilson counties. Bereavement services are available to families of Hope Hospice patients as well as our neighbors within our service area. Available services include individual and family counseling, support groups, memorial services and a Children’s Grief Program complete with family activities and camps throughout the year.

Hope Hospice is proud to have the support of over 200 volunteers. Volunteers serve in the areas of Bereavement programming, patient care, administration, Thrift Shop, and fundraising. Those who provide companionship visits to patients first complete 25 hours of training in an 8-week training program.