MYTH: Hospice care ends when someone dies.
FACT: Hospice organizations offer bereavement services for all ages.

Hospice counseling services that deal specifically with grief and coping after the loss of a loved one are available at no cost for up to a year after someone dies. For example, TRU Community Care patient Tom’s wife, Laura, credits hospice as something that she and her family can always look back and reflect on in a positive way. “TRU’s grief counselor helped me heal immensely during such a difficult time.”

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MYTH: Hospice means strangers care for you.
FACT: Hospice provides a dedicated team of specialists to suit the needs of each patient and educate family members to serve as caregivers.

TRU Community Care strives to educate family members to serve as the primary caregivers for an end-of-life patient. For example, TRU Community Care patient Tom’s wife, Laura, said, “I learned to more willingly lean on others, to allow others – hospice staff, family, friends – to assist with Tom’s care – giving him a wider circle to help care for him during his final weeks.”

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Medical treatment does not stop simply because you’re in hospice care.

MYTH: Hospice means forgoing all medical treatment.
FACT: Hospice nurses and physicians are experts in the latest medications and devices for pain and symptom relief.

In every case, a hospice provider will assess the needs of the patient, deciding which medications and equipment are needed for maximum comfort. For example, our TRU patient Tom’s care team helped him maintain mobility and strength and improve his self-care while he was still at home. Once he was transferred to our inpatient care center, we assessed his medications for maximum comfort.

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You can receive hospice care wherever you call home.

MYTH: Hospice care means leaving home.
FACT: Hospice services can be provided in a patient’s own home, a nursing home, long-term care facility or a hospice care center.

Hospice is not a place. In fact, hospice services can be provided to a terminally ill patient and his or her family wherever they are most comfortable, or wherever they consider “home.”

In the living room, a father laughs and reminisces with his children over the silly things they did during childhood. Later, he joins the family to say grace before enjoying a meal together. Moments like these may seem ordinary to most. Would it surprise you to know that this man, Tom, is dying and receiving care from hospice? When Tom was diagnosed with advanced metastatic prostate cancer, the term hospice disturbed him at first. But when TRU arrived on his doorstep, he knew he had a team of caregivers whom he could rely on.

Tom’s wish was to make sure he was able to stay home for as long as possible at the end of his life. TRU made it possible for Tom’s wife, Laura, to get the assistance she needed while caring for Tom full time.

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