National surveys indicate that 70% of people want to die at home – not in a hospital or nursing home. However, there are many obstacles to remaining at home at the end of life:
- complicated symptoms and/or pain management
- the unavailability of a capable caregiver (an increasing number of people live alone), or
- their loved one is too frail or unwell themselves
- their children live out of town or work full time and have families
- a medical crisis that leads to hospitalization.
If home care is not possible, the homelike environment of a hospice house is a vital alternative.
Today, hospice provides compassionate care for people with advanced stages of all chronic diseases from Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s to heart, lung and kidney disease as well as cancer in its many forms.
As the Baby Boom generation turns sixty this year, demographers predict the number of people needing end-of-life services to dramatically increase within the next decade. As the need for end of life services increase, so too will the need for a The Anne McGraw House for people who cannot remain in their own homes.
HospiceCare’s own experience reflects this trend: Over the past three years, HospiceCare has experienced major increases. The average daily census of patients went from 53 in 2003 to 94 in 2006 – an increase of 78%!
HospiceCare is currently serving over 100 patients and families per day.
