To the Editor:

There comes a time in many of our lives when we take on the responsibility of caring for a seriously or terminally ill family member. It is a hard job and unfortunately can be made harder by our confusing and fragmented healthcare system.

Fortunately, there’s an incredible resource in our community that provides comfort, dignity, and respect to those coping with a serious or life-limiting illness and their families: Hospice and Palliative Care of St. Lawrence Valley.

November is National Hospice and Palliative Care Month, and we’re reaching out to help our community understand the care options that are available to them and their loved ones.

Hospice care is unique in that it offers an interdisciplinary team approach to treatment that supports a person’s physical, emotional, and spiritual needs. It includes expert medical care, comprehensive pain and symptom management, and emotional and spiritual care.

Caring for the whole person – body, mind, and spirit – allows the team to address each patient’s unique needs and challenges, and help the patient live their life as fully as possible, whatever that means for them.

In addition to caring for the patients, hospice care offers services for families and loved ones that provide emotional support and advice to help family members become confident caregivers and adjust to the future with grief support for a full year.

Hospices are also some of the best providers of community-based palliative care. Palliative care delivers the same expert, holistic care aimed at improving a person’s quality of life by managing the distressing symptoms associated with a chronic illness. Palliative Care can be provided at any time during an illness, including from the time of a diagnosis and in combination with other curative treatments. In fact, research shows cancer patients who received palliative care support while undergoing radiation or chemotherapy had a significantly higher quality of life.

The best time to learn about hospice care or palliative care – and to make plans for the kind of care you or a loved one would want – is long before you are faced with a medical crisis. One of the most frequent comments we hear from families is, “I wish we had called sooner.”

To learn more about our services visit www.hospiceslv.org or call us at 315-265-3105.

We are committed to delivering high-quality, person-centered care to anyone who is facing a serious or life-limiting illness. Our commitment to serving our community has not waivered throughout these turbulent times; Hospice and Palliative Care of St. Lawrence Valley is here to provide you with compassion, comfort, and care when you need it most.

Samantha Jones

Hospice of St. Lawrence Valley