I don’t want to be in pain.
I don’t want to be alone.
I don’t want to struggle for breath.
I don’t want to be a burden.
“We believe there is a better way and together we can find it.”
Respecting the dignity and worth of each patient, family member and employee.
Providing compassionate care to each patient without regard to race, color, creed, or sex.
Striving to provide compassionate care to those in the final stages of life.
Networking with other providers to ensure a continuum of care.
Anyone can inquire about hospice services. You or your loved one may call a local hospice and request services. The hospice staff will then contact your physician to determine if a referral to hospice is appropriate. Another way to inquire about hospice is to talk with your physician, and he or she can make a referral to hospice.
Hospice can begin as soon as a ‘referral’ is made by the person’s physician. The hospice staff will then contact the person referred to set up an initial meeting to review the services the hospice will offer and sign the necessary consent forms for care to begin. Usually, care is ready to begin within a day or two of a referral. However, in urgent situations, service may begin sooner.
The Medicare Hospice Benefit requires that a terminally-ill patient have a prognosis of six months or less. There is not a six-month limit to hospice care services.
Hospice eligibility requirements should not be confused with length of service.
A patient in the final phase of life may receive hospice care for as long as necessary when a physician certifies that he or she continues to meet eligibility requirements.
Under the Medicare Hospice Benefit, two 90-day periods of care (a total of six months) are followed by an unlimited number of 60-day periods.
Hospice is paid for through the Medicare Hospice Benefit, Medicaid Hospice Benefit and most private insurers. If a person does not have coverage through Medicare, Medicaid or a private insurance company, hospice will work with the person and their family to ensure needed services can be provided.
Medicare covers these hospice services and pays nearly all of their costs:
Physician services
Nursing care
Medical equipment (like wheelchairs or walkers)
Medical supplies (like bandages and catheters)
Drugs for symptom control and pain relief
Short-term care in the hospital, including respite and inpatient for pain and symptom management
Home health aide and homemaker services
Physical and occupational therapy
Speech therapy
Social work services
Dietary counseling
Grief support to help you and your family
Learn more from National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (nhpco.org)
Hospice volunteers provide essential support to patients and their loved ones including running errands, preparing meals, assistance with home activities, emotional and spiritual support and companionship as each family deals with grief and bereavement. If you would like more information about being a hospice volunteer, please contact our hospice volunteer coordinator at (918) 493-6555.
Accepting and letting go of someone you love is the most difficult challenge that lies in the death of a loved one. How is it possible that one who is so alive, with so much to share, could so suddenly leave, forever? Where did you go, we wonder; are you afraid, are you lonely or hurting? We feel so helpless, believing there is no way to reach out and hold their hand or comfort them on this solo journey. Do they wish they were still here; do they miss us as much as we miss them; do they know our heart is broken or how much we loved them?
This is the great divide in life, one that feels unbearable to many. We can’t see what’s beyond life, as we know it, we can only wonder and search for something to hold onto. Once you experience this kind of loss, you know there is something more, something beyond the big blue sky we stare at as we wonder where and why. You simply know this was not all for nothing; somewhere out there the one you love lives on, in a miraculously way somehow.
This reminds me of the story in Mark 9 where the disciples couldn’t heal the young boy, and the dad came to Jesus. Jesus basically said this takes more belief. The dad was very honest. (New King James, verse 24). Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” That describes what many feel, even about grief. We know that our loved one is okay, and yet we still struggle and have terrible pain. I think the key is to admit that to God…I believe, but I really need your strength…help my unbelief.
That sense of knowing is one of the many ways we maintain contact with our precious loved one after they’re gone. Visits during dreamtime may be the most recognized way we reach out and touch; mainly because our resistance is down while we are asleep. We may even feel their touch or hear them whisper something that we know came from them. Songs that suddenly come to mind particularly when a single line or verse replays is yet another way we touch. The message they want to convey is in those words. They’re not really gone, they just left the vessel they were using to journey through life.
Were they afraid when they left us? Death to the physical body is a change of consciousness, the kind we experience when we wake up from a dream. They are waking up to a new and vastly expanded consciousness. There is no fear, no pain. This transformation allows the one who has died to see with crystal clear vision, to know all of the facts about events in their lifetime. Perception is replaced with clarity. There is a letting go process that may take longer for those who died abruptly; they may stay close until loose ends are tied up. You may feel them; feel their presence close to you, somewhat like companion energy. There is helpful guidance being offered that aids us to make the way and begin living again.
When the process is complete, we all choose to finalize the transformation of being totally rejoined with the creative consciousness we know as God. Even though we were never actually separated, our birth into a physical body necessitated a different consciousness or awareness.
