Q and A: Hospice in Senior Living

Q and A: Hospice in Assisted Living

Question: Unfortunately, my mother has a terminal illness. She and my dad live in a senior community. The Director of Resident Care there asked if we were considering hospice care for mom. What is that?

Answer: Hospice describes an approach to care for the terminally ill. It utilizes a team of specially trained professionals, volunteers and family members to attend to the symptoms of the disease; help control the patients’ pain and discomfort; and address emotional, social and spiritual needs of everyone involved.

Hospice care neither hastens death nor prolongs life; its goal is to provide comfort and support to improve patients’ last days. The word “hospice” shares the same root as “hospitality” and was originally used to describe a place of shelter for weary and sick travelers returning from religious pilgrimages.

During the 1960’s, Dr. Cicely Saunders, a British physician, established St. Christopher’s Hospice near London. Her team approach used pain management and bereavement counseling for the compassionate and dignified care of the dying. She introduced the concept to America in 1963.

The first American hospice was established in New Haven, Connecticut in 1974. Today there are more than 3,000 hospice providers caring for over 500,000 people each year. Most people receive hospice care in their own home, but it can be provided in a variety of settings.

Assisted living communities, because they are essentially non-medical, were prohibited until recently from keeping residents who became terminally ill. However in the late 90s, a group of legislators were convinced that hospice care should be allowed in residential care facilities for the elderly (the legal name of assisted living communities and board and care homes in California). Laws were changed and hospice care became allowable in assisted living communities that choose to permit it and took all the legal steps required so their residents could live out their final days in familiar surroundings.

Since the Director of Resident Care at the retirement community where your parents live mentioned hospice care, it seems likely that they have chosen to work with hospice care teams for their terminally ill residents who chose this special health care option. You might want to check with him or her about that community’s policies and hospice admission practices. Hank Fisher Properties’ premier senior communities allows hospice care and have procedures in place  to accommodate this choice.