Good Samaritan Celebrates November as National Hospice and Palliative Care Month
Throughout the month of November, Good Samaritan will be joining organizations across the nation to celebrate National Hospice and Palliative Care Month.
For more than 40 years, hospice has helped provide comfort and dignity to millions of people and has supported them in their goals of care. Hospice also provides emotional support and advice to help family members become confident caregivers and adjust to the future with grief support.
“It is essential that people understand that hospice and palliative care is not giving up, it is not the abandonment of care, and it is not reserved for the imminently dying,” said Edo Banach, president and CEO of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization. “Hospice is a successful model of person-centered care that brings hope, dignity and compassion when they are most needed.”
In 2018, 1.61 million Medicare beneficiaries received care from hospices in this country, reports NHPCO. Hospice is unique in that it offers an interdisciplinary team approach to treatment. Caring for the whole person allows the team to address each patient’s unique needs and challenges.
“Every situation is different,” explains Aaron Housh, Good Samaritan’s CEO. “Good Sam has been serving southwest Virginia for nearly thirty years, but we make every effort to treat each family as if they are our only family. We meet them at their particular point of need and our team is dedicated to ensuring the best possible care, every single time.”
Hospices are also some of the best providers of community-based palliative care, that delivers expertise to improve quality of life and relief from pain. It can be provided at any time during an illness – from diagnosis, during and after treatment. Good Sam recently celebrated the first year anniversary of its home-based palliative care program.
More information about hospice, palliative care, and advance care planning is available at GoodSam.care.
