Like any area of knowledge, the terms used in end-of-life care can be a little mysterious if you’re not familiar with them. This “dictionary” will help.
Note that the definitions listed here are just a starting point — if you think someone you care about may be appropriate for hospice, give us a call. We can give you more information and help navigate you through the process of caregiving.
Admission
The admission process is the very first step in the hospice process for most of our patients. When someone calls our office, they will talk with one of our qualified and experienced registered nurses. During that initial call, the nurse will collect essential information about the patient.
That information will help with our first visit to the patient’s home or other location, when a nurse meets with them and their family, to develop a plan to support the patient’s needs and wishes.
Adult Care
Adult care is a significant part of what we do here at Centrica Care Navigators. We take care of each patient’s physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health, alongside the patient’s family, personal physician, and the patient themselves.
Though most patients are able to receive care in their own homes, it’s appropriate for others to get 24-hour attention at our own care site, Centrica Rose Arbor Place. There, patients will receive skilled pain management from our registered nurses around the clock in their own private room.
Care isn’t limited to patients, though, and family and friends are able to stay overnight and enjoy special time with their loved ones at Centrica Rose Arbor Place as well.
Advance Directives
It’s important that every patient be able to express their wishes for their care, but changing health conditions mean patients may not always be able to explain what they want or need. We encourage patients to complete their advance directives, which state what the patient would like to happen if they can’t advocate for themselves.
We provide you with a booklet to help you think through and record your advance directives. Among other topics, the booklet includes questions on your medical care, like:
Do you want to use ventilators, nutritional tubes, and other machines to keep you alive if needed?
Can you refuse treatments and choose to die, or do you want to be kept alive for as long as possible?
A will describes what should happen to your beneficiaries (children) and possessions after your death. Advance Directives, on the other hand, are what should happen to you if you’re still alive but incapable of making decisions for yourself.
Caregiver
If you have a loved one receiving services from Centrica Care Navigators, you are a caregiver. Even if you aren’t someone’s primary caregiver, you still deserve the same attention and compassionate care we give to all our patients and families.
A caregiver doesn’t have to be a single designated person for a patient. It’s anyone who spends time with their loved one, even if that is simply sitting with them quietly, or watching TV together.
Chaplain
Patients looking for spiritual support may be able to find it with our chaplains. There’s no religious requirement to receive care, and patients can choose to not use the services of our chaplains. But many people do meet with them, to talk about their beliefs, or to help the patient work through unresolved issues in their lives before their deaths.
End-of-Life Care
Patients receiving service from our organization, whether they are in our hospice care program or our palliative care program, receive end-of-life care. What’s most important for every patient is that they receive compassionate comfort and a comprehensive circle of support for their body, mind, and spirit.
Grief Support
After a patient dies — and sometimes before — the Centrica Grief Support team is there to help. We offer a variety of specialized groups for caregivers and families to meet others who have had similar experiences. They meet regularly to talk and find ways to grow around their grief.
Home
A phrase we use a lot is “hospice is not a place.” End-of-life care can happen anywhere our patients live. For many of them, that’s right in the home they have lived in for decades. Our staff travels throughout southwest Michigan, to each patient we serve, so they will receive the compassionate, comforting care that they deserve.
Hospice Care
The care that people receive in the days, weeks, and months before death. If someone is diagnosed with a serious illness and is expected to live 6 months or fewer, they are typically eligible for hospice. Their care can be provided anywhere they are.
The goal of hospice care is to provide compassionate, comforting support to all our patients in the time they have remaining.
Hospital
Centrica Care Navigators works in partnership with many local hospital systems — physicians who recognize that a patient would be best helped by receiving appropriate end-of-life care recommend that patients and their loved ones reach out to us.
Interdisciplinary Group (IDG)
The team of professionals who help patients and their caregivers through an often challenging and complicated process. This group includes a hospice physician, a registered nurse, a hospice aide, a social worker, a chaplain, a music therapist, and a volunteer. Each brings a different set of skills and experiences to their service, but they are all devoted to helping patients receive compassionate care.
Liaison
Our community partner liaisons make connections with senior living facilities and other organizations that offer care throughout southwest Michigan and the Centrica Care Navigators team. They highlight our experience and abilities and encourage staff at facilities to recommend patients and their loved ones to Centrica Care Navigators when it’s time for end-of-life care.
Medicare
Original Medicare coverage for hospice has been part of Medicare Part A for decades. With that benefit, the costs of care are covered, as long as the patient qualifies for hospice. That’s true with a Medicare Advantage Plan or other Medicare health plan.
Hospice care under the Medicare Hospice Benefit covers but isn’t limited to:
The medicine, supplies, and services needed for pain relief and symptom management
Social and emotional support in the form of social workers, hospice aides, chaplains, and others who work closely with the patient to achieve their goals
Grief counseling for the patient, family members, and other caregivers
Music Therapist
Music therapists [https://centricacare.org/news/music-therapy-end-of-life/] do much more than sing and play for patients. Music therapists can help patients with their physical, mental, and emotional condition, keeping them feeling comfortable and engaged, or calm and relaxed, depending on the situation.
Nonprofit
Every hospice and palliative care organization supports its patients and their families, but for-profit agencies focus on patients that will bring in a more significant amount of the Medicare Hospice Benefit or other payment.
Centrica Care Navigators is a nonprofit organization. We accept everyone, regardless of their ability to pay. The goal of every interaction with patients isn’t to maximize our income; it’s to treat patients with the dignity and compassionate care they deserve.
Palliative Care
Care for people with a serious illness who are still receiving curative treatment. In contrast, hospice care is for patients who are no longer trying to cure their illness and instead want to live a high quality of life in the time they have remaining.
Patient
A patient is someone who is receiving Centrica Care Navigators services. They may be a hospice patient, or a palliative care patient; either way, they are receiving care that is appropriate for them and respects their needs and wishes.
The word “patient” might make you think of someone wearing a gown in a sterile hospital room, but end-of-life care for many people can be provided right in their own home.
Pet Therapy
You’ll find volunteers and their pets visiting patients almost every week of the year. The dogs (other animals are welcome, but all our pets right now are dogs) sit quietly with patients, or come close so the patient can stroke their fur — whatever the patient is comfortable with.
Primary Care Physician
This is the doctor patients have been visiting before they started hospice or palliative care, their own doctor who they may have been with for years. When someone starts care with Centrica Care Navigators, they don’t have to give up seeing their primary care physician.
Instead, our team works closely with the patient’s own doctor to provide end-of-life care, and keeps them up to date with what’s happening with the patient’s condition. The physician is still the one the patient can go to with other medical concerns.
Skilled Nursing Facility
SNFs are places for people to live temporarily while they’re getting rehabilitation and medical treatments after hospitalization for an illness or injury. We partner with SNFs too, to make sure patients receive appropriate care, no matter the circumstances.
Social worker
A social worker [https://centricacare.org/how-your-care-team-helps/how-your-care-team-helps-talking-with-a-social-worker/] specializing in end-of-life care can assist with things like arranging transportation to doctor visits. Sometimes, though, they meet with a patient just to listen, to talk with them about how they’re feeling to try and identify needs they might not be putting into words.
Story Catcher
Our Story Catcher [https://centricacare.org/story-catcher/] program gives the most valuable gift from our patients to their loved ones: the gift of their story and memories, spoken in their own voice, in their own words.
Specially trained volunteers, our “story catchers,” meet with patients to record and preserve stories that are meaningful for them and that they want to leave as a legacy for their loved ones. When their words are no more, a patient’s story and voice live on as an audio-recorded memorial, a precious keepsake for their family.
