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November is National Hospice & Palliative Care Month!

Magdalena Stefanek, November 01, 2017

November is National Hospice and Palliative Care Month and hospices across the country are reaching out to raise awareness about the highest quality care for all people coping with life-limiting illness.

“Every year, nearly 1.6 million people living with a life-limiting illness receive care from hospice and palliative care providers in this country,” said J. Donald Schumacher, president and CEO of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization. “These highly-trained professionals ensure that patients and families find dignity, respect, and love during life’s most difficult journey.”

Hospice is not a place. Hospice and palliative care programs provide pain management, symptom control, psycho-social support, and spiritual care to patients and their families when a cure is not possible.

Hospice and palliative care combines the highest level of quality medical care with the emotional and spiritual support that families need most when facing the end of life. Through this specialized quality care, we see many patients and their families experience more meaningful moments together. Hospice helps them focus on living despite terminal diagnoses.

As one Rainbow hospice family member shared, “My family and I can’t say enough good things about each and every one of you. You were all so compassionate, not only with our dear mom but with all of our family. You took the time to listen if we needed to talk or cry, and just helped us at every aspect of Mom’s final journey. You loved our mom as if she were your own and made our life bearable in a most difficult time. Thanks for being such an important part of our mom’s life.”

Throughout the month of November, Rainbow will be joining Presence Health and other organizations across Chicago to host educational workshops that will help the community understand how important hospice and palliative care can be.