Princeton Hospice Care has recently trained 4 new hospice volunteers. This past week Linda Brooks from Moog and Friends House in Penticton was in Princeton to train new people and update the skills of some of the existing volunteers. Participants were Jamie Holloway, Social Worker; June Hope, Princeton Hospice Volunteer Coordinator; Agnes Newman, Trisha Akerly, Victoria Olsen, Bernadette Kelleher. Existing volunteers are Betty Reheis, Lola Dieno.
Palliative Care is a program of active, compassionate care primarily directed towards improving the quality of life for the dying. It is delivered by an interdisciplinary team that provides sensitive and skilled care to meet the physical, psychological, and spiritual needs of the client and family.
When Should Someone Begin the Hospice Palliative Program?
Because it can take some time for Hospice Palliative Care professionals to tailor palliative care and symptom management to each person, it is best to begin some level of professional care before a crisis exists. Families often feel it is “too soon” to begin palliative care and wait until death is very near. Bringing hospice professionals in at the last minute limits their effectiveness.
A better approach is to arrange introductory home meetings or Hospice House visits well in advance of need and obtain counseling from a hospice professional that can provide helpful suggestions on care arrangements. Put the support network in place before you need it. The decision to begin palliative care may intensify feelings of grief and bereavement, both in the person who is terminally ill and in others. Hospice Palliative Care professionals are available to help manage these feelings and help you through this end of life process.
Hospice Home Program
Did you know that palliative care is available to you at home?
Advanced illness disrupts a family’s equilibrium – for this reason, providing coordinated care within the comfort and security of your home is an essential component of the Palliative Care Program. Our program of services is available, to you and your family, either in your home, or when admission to the Hospice room becomes necessary.
Based upon your needs, home care nursing; home support; emotional and nutritional counseling is available to you. You and your family are the center of our Palliative Care team. An interdisciplinary, collaborative group of health care providers will work with you and your physician. Our goal is to provide you and your family with the services you need to meet your specific palliative care needs.
Hospice Palliative Care Team
The Princeton & District Hospice Palliative Care Program is a “program” of care rather than a “place” of care. The “care” offered is geared towards your comfort when cure or active treatment of the disease is not an option. Our goal is that both you and your family members are supported through this time of illness, death and bereavement according to your needs and wishes. Assistance may be provided by a variety of team members and may occur at home, or in the Hospice room at the hospital.
We offer skilled and compassionate medical care, together with social, emotional and spiritual support from professional and volunteer caregivers. We focus on your care and comfort, rather than a cure. This means that we work to control symptoms that may interfere with your daily living rather than trying to cure your disease. In all of this, we will maintain respect for your right to be a person, rather than just “a client” or “a family”. You, your family and your other caregivers have access to a number of services. These services are there to support you and help you deal with a variety of concerns that may arise.
The Hospice Palliative Care Team refers to everyone who has a part to play in your care at this time. It includes you, your immediate family members and involved friends, as well as your Palliative Care Team which consists of family physician, social worker, home care nurse, community health care worker, Hospice volunteers, pharmacist, dietitian/nutritionist and clergy/ religious community if desired.
How well we all work together is crucial to the quality of your care.
For more information on the web you can look at Penticton’s services. www.pentictonhospice.com/programs-and-services.html
We are starting much smaller than this model but we hope to grow into a full program.
Thank you to Linda Brooks for the informative teachings of Hospice work and Princeton and District Skills Center for the use of one of their meeting rooms.