caring for elderly parents
Hospice: Offering Quality of Life to the End of Life
Approximately 30 years ago, a U.S. volunteer movement began that would revolutionize health care. That quiet revolution, nowadays led by professional and medical teams, still depends on volunteers — people like you and me — to help the terminally ill reach the end of their lives peacefully, pain-free and with dignity, often at home among their loved ones.
Before the hospice movement took hold in the United States, terminal patients typically spent their last days in sterile, unfamiliar and uncomfortable hospitals. Hospice supporters successfully showed that families, with the help of professional and volunteer support, could care for their loved ones at home, enabling them to live out the final months of their lives in familiar surroundings with the people who mean the most to them.
Currently, thousands of nonprofit and for-profit hospice organizations work with individuals and families to provide medical, spiritual, emotional and family support. Hospice staff include medical practitioners, chaplains, counselors and therapists. Completing the picture are volunteers — the lifeblood of any good hospice program.
"Volunteers are a huge part of the work we do," says Tana Sykes, public relations coordinator for Pikes Peak Hospice and Palliative Care in Colorado Springs, Colo.
"They are our lifesavers. They help feed, bathe and read to patients. They perform a wide variety of tasks, from acting as a companion to a patient — going to lunch or coffee — to offering families respite care and walking with them through the bereavement process."
Other suggested volunteer activities include music, massage, pet therapy or art therapy. Sykes adds that volunteers may also contribute in an administrative capacity, helping with office work.
You don't need medical training or a counseling degree to volunteer. All hospice groups require of their volunteers are compassion and a desire to help. Hospice staff will train you, then place you where you are most comfortable serving. And as a volunteer, you set your own hours.
If serving the dying sounds like a dismal, depressing ministry, consider this: Colorado Springs's newspaper, The Gazette, ranked Pikes Peak Hospice and Palliative Care as the area's "best place to volunteer" in 2000. And hospice volunteers will tell you they reap incredible benefits from their work.
"You grow to love and care for patients and their families," Sykes says. "It's a profound and moving experience to walk with them at such an intimate time."
Interested in becoming involved in this crucial ministry? Contact your local hospice organization for more information on volunteer opportunities, or visit the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization's Web site for a listing of hospice organizations in your area.
Background Information
Advance Medical Directives
This comparison between Living Wills versus Durable Power of Attorney can help you make informed health care decisions for your aging parent.
Aging or Alzheimer's
Regular signs of growing older often get paralleled with Alzheimer's. Find out the difference.
Caregiving Support Systems
Providing for an aging parent can be stressful. It's important to be surrounded by others who can help.
Help From Hospice
For terminally ill patients, hospice is often a welcomed care option.
Is It Alzheimer's?
If you're concerned about your loved one's mental health, here's help distinguishing normal memory loss from the onset of Alzheimer's disease.
Questions and Answers
How can we show concern and respect for the elderly?
Answer
Review Frequently Asked Questions
Stories
Making My Mother's End-of-Life Decision
If Mom lived, would she want to be a "vegetable" the rest of her life? What if she never came out of her coma? What would she want us to end her life?
Full Circle
From child to parent, one woman reflects on caring for her mother.
The Long Goodbye
A daughter faces the harsh reality of her mother's Alzheimer's disease and the difficulty of loving the stranger her mother has become.
You Can Go Home Again
As parents reach their later years, many children feel the tug to move closer to them.
If you've been through a experience related to this topic, we invite you to share your story with others.Share Your Story
Other Things to Consider
Loneliness and Depression Afflicting the Elderly
If you know an elderly person who you suspect is clinically depressed, don't brush it off. Do whatever is necessary to get them the help they need.
If I End Up Like Terri: An Open Letter to My Wife
Teri Schiavo's tragic death made many people think. One man reflected on his future with his wife
Where is God in the Midst of All My Troubles?
So many cry out to Him in times of need, but is God really listening? And, more important, does He care?
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