As your beloved senior’s caregiver, you are looking for their latter days to be as full and enjoyable as the best days they’ve ever had. So, comfort, dignity, and happiness for your loved one are top priorities.
Hospices are places of compassion where elderly individuals can enjoy the latter part of their journey. But not all hospices are created equal and finding the ideal one for your senior can feel daunting considering the variety of approaches, and strategies these havens look to provide care and comfort to seniors nearing the end of life..
Clear and meaningful goals can be a guiding light when navigating the complexities of hospice, ensuring your senior’s well-being and enjoyment in their twilight days.
Importance of Setting Goals for Your Selected Hospice
When entering into a relationship with a hospice care service for your senior, it’s essential to establish clear expectations from the onset.
Hospices tend to have standard goals and procedures for all their clients, so it is important for you and your loved one to clearly express your vision and expectations for your senior’s care plan. That way, your goals and those of your hospice will be aligned and the relationship will be set to be the most satisfactory for all parts.
Effective communication is key to ensuring that you and your family become active participants in shaping the care plan from the beginning. On the other hand, an empathetic hospice company will seek to actively involve you, your senior, your senior, and their caregivers and healthcare professionals in the process.
With input from all parties, a comprehensive personalized plan can be developed that meets the unique needs and preferences of your loved one and their family.
Having clear goals in mind will make it easier for you and your loved one to identify if you’re feeling excluded from the goal-setting process, and act in consequence by assertively asking the hospice staff to take your opinions into account or even by changing your hospice choice.
Each family’s goals and needs are different, and it’s crucial to identify what you as a family want from hospice care and assertively communicate those desires.
By actively participating in the goal-setting process, you can ensure that your senior receives the personalized and holistic care they deserve during their end-of-life journey.
To help you see clearly what your goals may be, let’s talk about the types of objectives the elderly and their families may have for the well-being of seniors in their final months or weeks.
We can include most goals in one of the following three groups.
1 – Comfort and Symptom Management
Comfort and symptom management is a crucial aspect of hospice care. Being as free of pain as possible will impact all other aspects of your senior’s well-being. Having a pain-free experience will allow your elderly loved one to have more varied activities and enjoy them more.
The following are examples of specific goals and strategies that are part of managing symptoms for your loved one’s comfort.
Pain Management
One goal within the “Comfort and Symptom Management” category for hospice care is to effectively manage your loved one’s pain.
This includes evaluating the type and intensity of pain, appropriately intervening to relieve pain by adjusting medication or using alternative therapies, and regularly monitoring and reassessing the effectiveness of the pain management plan to ensure maximum comfort for your senior.
Symptom Control
Another common goal is to address and alleviate other distressing symptoms commonly experienced by seniors in hospice care, such as
- Nausea,
- Shortness of breath,
- Fatigue
- Anxiety
This involves identifying the underlying causes of these symptoms, finding the right treatment to resolve them, and providing ongoing support and monitoring to manage symptoms effectively and enhance your senior’s overall comfort and quality of life..
Personalized Comfort Measures
A key specific goal often is to provide comfort in a way that addresses the unique needs and preferences of your elderly loved one beyond managing pain and illness-related symptoms.
This may include setting up your senior’s environment in the most comfortable way by adjusting room temperature, providing supportive bedding, and facilitating access to their favorite items or activities, among others.
Additionally, personalized comfort measures may involve non-pharmacological therapies such as massage, music, or aromatherapy to promote relaxation and enhance your loved one’s overall sense of comfort and well-being during their hospice care journey.
2 – Emotional and Psychological Support
Your elderly loved one may experience conflicting emotions during this period as they approach the end of life. Anger, sadness, worry, or questions about the afterlife may wreak havoc on their emotional stability.
You want to ensure they are at their best mentally during their hospice journey.
To achieve this, you and your senior’s hospice may set important and specific goals such as the following.
Emotional Coping
This has to do with giving your elderly loved one strategies to cope with the emotional challenges associated with their end-of-life journey.
This often involves providing individual or group counseling sessions where your senior can express their feelings and concerns in a supportive environment.
Another strategy can be teaching your loved one relaxation techniques, that can help them reduce stress, anxiety, or depression and improve their overall emotional stability. These include:
- Mindfulness practices, or
- guided imagery exercises
Family Communication and Support
Another goal can be to facilitate open and supportive communication among seniors, their loved ones, and caregivers.
This frequently includes meetings where everyone involved can share their thoughts, wishes, and concerns regarding your senior’s care.
By fostering transparent communication and addressing family dynamics and potential conflicts, hospice teams can help create a supportive environment that improves the emotional well-being of the elderly and their loved ones.
Legacy Building
A key goal for many seniors is to find meaning and purpose in their remaining time, and a legacy that reflects their life experiences and values.
This may involve engaging seniors in activities to review their lives like reminiscence therapy, or legacy projects where they can share their stories, wisdom, and life lessons with their loved ones.
By helping seniors find transcendence in their final days, hospice teams can promote a sense of fulfillment, dignity, and emotional well-being as seniors reflect on their lives and prepare for the transition ahead.
3 – Maintaining Quality of Life and Dignity
Personalized Activity Plans
Personalized activity plans are a way to respect each elderly individual’s preferences and values and help them have a lifestyle that reflects their uniqueness.
This involves actively involving your senior and family members in activity-planning conversations, where they can express their wishes regarding routines, hobbies, and outings that make them feel fulfilled.
By tailoring activity plans, hospice teams can ensure that your loved one maintains a sense of joy and fulfillment throughout their later journey.
Respect for Autonomy and Choice
Another goal is to promote respect for the senior’s autonomy and decision-making capacity throughout their hospice care experience.
This includes honoring the senior’s right to make informed choices about their care, treatment options, and end-of-life wishes, even as their health condition may decline.
Creating a Comfortable and Supportive Environment
Creating a comfortable and supportive environment is key to fostering the elderly’s well-being and sense of dignity.
This involves ensuring that the senior’s whole physical surroundings, including the common areas of the hospice, are conducive to comfort and relaxation, with attention to factors such as temperature, lighting, and noise levels.
Additionally, hospice staff should strive to cultivate a supportive atmosphere where the senior feels respected, valued, and heard.
By providing compassionate care, ever-present emotional support, and opportunities for meaningful social interaction, hospice teams can help seniors maintain their quality of life through their twilight years.
At Amy’s Eden Senior Care, We Advocate For Your Loved On’es Hospice Goals
Choosing the right hospice care for your loved one is a crucial decision that requires thoughtful consideration and a deep understanding of their needs and desires, as well as a clear vision for your senior’s care that translates into well-defined goals.
To materialize this vision, the hospice you choose must have an open mind and flexible approach, and be willing to adapt their care standards to your elderly loved one’s necessities and the goals you and your senior set together.
At Amy’s Eden Senior Care, we are dedicated to providing compassionate, comprehensive, and personalized hospice care that puts your loved one at the center. We know that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to creating an environment of well-being and meaning where your senior can thrive.
That’s why we will take the time to listen to your loved one and you, put to heart your vision for their care, and turn that vision into a clear set of goals to guide the wholehearted care we will provide to them.
More than 15 years of experience and a personalized care model set us apart as the best senior care company in Reno and Carson City, Nevada.
You can trust that our commitment to a dignifying, enjoyable, and unique experience for each of our elderly members will help us deliver a service that will contribute to making your senior’s golden years some of the best of their life.
Contact us today so we can start talking about providing hospice care that honors your loved one’s journey.
Learn more: America Hospice Care: How To Easily Cover Your Loved One’s Care
