JourneyCare celebrates November as National Hospice and Palliative Care Month
Throughout November, JourneyCare in Glenview joins organizations across the nation in honoring National Hospice and Palliative Care Month - and dedicates this time to educate our community on the valuable benefits this care can provide during a critical time.
JourneyCare staff frequently hears the same comment from families across the 13 Illinois counties we are licensed to serve: "Why did we wait so long before calling hospice?" That is why the best time to learn about hospice and palliative care - and to make plans for the kind of care you or a loved one would want - is now.
Don't wait until you are faced with a medical crisis.
For more than 40 years, hospice has helped provide comfort and dignity to millions of people, allowing them to spend their final months wherever they call home, surrounded by their loved ones. JourneyCare was among these early providers, started in the late 1970s by concerned citizens and volunteers who wanted better options for their family, friends and neighbors when faced with serious illness and at the end of life.
Hospices like JourneyCare ensure that pain management, therapies, and treatments all support a plan of care that is centered on the person's goals. Hospice care also provides emotional support and advice to help family members become confident caregivers and adjust to the future with grief support for up to a year. Hospices are also some of the best providers of community-based palliative care. Palliative care delivers expertise to improve quality of life and relief from pain. It can be provided at any time during an illness - during and after treatment, from diagnosis on.
"It is essential that people understand that hospice and palliative care is not giving up, it is not the abandonment of care, and it is not reserved for the imminently dying," Edo Banach, president and CEO of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO), said. "Hospice is a successful model of person-centered care that brings hope, dignity and compassion when they are most needed."
In 2018, 1.61 million Medicare beneficiaries received care from hospices in this country, NHPCO reports.
Hospice is unique in that it offers an interdisciplinary team approach to treatment. Caring for the whole person allows the team to address each patient's unique needs and challenges.
JourneyCare works to meet our patients and their families where they are physically, emotionally and spiritually, so that they can receive the best care possible when they need it most.
More information about hospice, palliative care, and advance care planning is available at journeycare.org, (844) 6-JOURNEY or from NHPCO's CaringInfo.org.
• About JourneyCare: JourneyCare is a nonprofit, community-based organization that provides care and support to families living with serious illness. With more than 40 years of health care leadership and expertise, JourneyCare has achieved national recognition for growth, innovation, community partnerships and best practices in caring for seriously ill adults and children. JourneyCare is licensed to serve 13 counties in the Chicago region and is the largest provider of hospice and palliative care in Illinois. To learn more, visit journeycare.org.