Home is a feeling, not a place. You’ll find it beyond the confines of your house: perhaps, during a car ride with your partner, a hug from your father, or a birthday dinner with your friends. It is the feeling you consciously or unconsciously seek for as a human being when you desire for love, comfort, and security.
Home, as sensation, is usually experienced firsthand within the childhood home. It is possibly the reason why the feeling of having a safe haven is associated with the word that means shelter, why it is linked to the circumstances in which people are reminded of Christmas mornings by the fireplace, drinking Mom’s home-made cocoa.
Your family will remain your family, regardless of the years that passed, and distance traversed individually. They are the people who showed you what love is, and the extent of love you can give. Despite the events that took place and separate lives now lived, family is the beginning and the end.
If a family member’s life is about to end, there is fear that a piece of you will vanish. The life you know will eventually change. It is normal to feel the need to return what was given to you, to cherish the final moments, to provide a home worth remembering.
When the time comes, you prepare by bringing in the qualities of hospice facilities into the place your loved one calls home. Like home, hospice is a type of care, not a place. There are instances when your loved one cannot be cared for at home because of complex conditions. Hospice care can be provided in any place where your loved one is at his or her most comfortable—from a nursing home to the childhood home.
In-house hospice is challenging, yet it simultaneously aims to ease the burden. Hospice care services are personalized based on the needs of your loved one. Before coming up with a tailor-made care plan, your hospice service provider will consult with your physician. Since hospice care provides emotional, physical, social, and spiritual support, not only to the patient, but to your family as well, this journey will include the aid of your attending physician, nurses, home help aides, medical social workers, chaplain, and volunteers.
The assessment will provide you with information on the equipment, medications, and therapies that must be provided for your loved one. When it comes to hospice care, Medicare and other private insurance companies cover the delivery and set-up of the following: wheelchairs, hospital beds, oxygen equipment, bed pads, medical supplies, and many others. Make sure there is available and accessible space in your home for the medical equipment.
The focus should be comfort, entertainment, and safety—all of which are reminders of home. Preparing your home for hospice care should prioritize the patient and caregiver’s comfort. Find a room where temperature and light can be moderated. Also, just because your loved one is in his or her final days, that doesn’t mean it should be a somber occasion. Let your loved one enjoy what he or she usually enjoys. Provide the normalcy of entertainment if the patient prefers. Give a safe space where there is nothing but love and warmth.
Home is a feeling. It can also be a memory. Savor the time left. It may never be the same, but when a heart is full, it will never forget.