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ARCHBOLD.ORG
•
WINTER 2016
19
TESTIMONIAL
THE PHILOSOPHY OF HOSPICE
I recently went to a funeral of a friend. One of the speakers was a chaplain from hospice. He
was a chaplain I had never met, and he spoke about how he and his patient never knew each
other until a few months ago. He said they were from different backgrounds and led completely different
lives and they probably would not have had a thing in common if not for the one man’s knowledge of his
impending death and the other’s knowledge of how to be a guide for the patient’s last journey.
He talked about getting to know this patient, his animals, his family and friends. By the time he was
called upon to speak at his funeral, he spoke of his patient like he was a long-lost friend. He couldn’t heal
the patient, but what he could do was be a true friend: to offer solace and spiritual support and a shoulder
when it became too much to bear. He did this for his patient, and his family and friends.
You might think of hospice as a place where nurses hurry back and forth, administering pain meds
to suffering people.
What hospice really is, is a philosophy—a philosophy to care for the whole body and spirit. But not just
for the patient. Hospice helps the family too. The mission of the hospice nurses, therapists, counselors,
chaplains and volunteers is to give greater meaning to a patient’s last days by offering a celebration, of
sorts, of that person’s life. Pain is eased through medication management and counseling, allowing the
patient to continue day-to-day living in the place they love the most—their home—and with the people
they love the most—their family.
What hospice
really
does is help the patient and their family through some of the most difficult
months, weeks or days of their life.
Carissa Hill
Community Relations Specialist, Archbold Health Services