Hospice care includes social workers, spiritual care providers, and other professionals to help patients and families talk about their fears, anger, and grief and alleviate emotional and spiritual pain.
In addition to physical pain, a patient might experience emotional, psychosocial, financial, or spiritual pain. Medications and other interventions also can be added/increased and changed to respond to these assessments. Pain will change over time, so it is important to assess and adjust the plan regularly. With this information, experienced healthcare professionals can determine a pain management strategy.
The good news is that palliative care and hospice care are widely available and offer the pain and symptom management and end-of-life care that patients and their families need. Along with the roller coaster of emotions and uncertainty, the complexity of the medical options makes it challenging to come to the right decisions for you and your family. Making decisions about end-of-life care is difficult.