Spring, 2008
Younger Patients Often Need a Hospice House
People who are unfamiliar with
hospice often assume that it is primarily a program for the elderly,
facing death following a long and productive life.
Often, this is the case, but certainly not always. Whatcom
Hospice professionals are beginning to see an increasing number of much
younger patients, many of whom could benefit from a hospice residence
– an option not currently available in Whatcom County.
One such patient is a young mother
in her thirties who has been battling life-threatening illness for more
than 10 years. Although she
survived a transplant, she is now dying. Her financial resources have
been exhausted and her insurance depleted. With no available caregivers
at home, her only option at this point is a nursing home, where the
average resident is more than twice her age.
Because she must rely on state aid, she must share a room, and
has little opportunity for private visits from her children and other
loved ones. For this young woman, a home-like private room in a Hospice
House would be a much more compassionate option. While skilled nursing
facilities are understandably focused on rehabilitation, hospice
residences focus on providing comfort, serenity and dignity at the end
of life, and on supporting the whole family through the difficult
process.
Another current patient is a man in
his fifties with rapidly progressing cancer.
Because he is single and his immediate family all have full-time
jobs and other obligations, like the young mother, he had had no choice
but to move to a nursing home where his pain and anxiety can be managed.
Like her, however, he must share a room with another man, thus
depriving his family of the chance to openly grieve and be supported in
this process in the privacy he certainly deserves at the end of his
life.
Whatcom Hospice can, and does,
provide significant help to terminally ill patients wherever they live.
But Whatcom Hospice Foundation is committed to building a Hospice House
in Bellingham to better serve those who cannot be cared for at home.
Visit the Hospice House portion of
this website for more information.
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