Terminal illnesses or worsening health may mean that you and your family member start to look at other options for care, including end-of-life care. This is also often called comfort care, which can be a confusing term when you’re not sure what it encompasses. Comfort care focuses on helping your family member to have the best quality of life possible.
Comfort Care Often Means Avoiding Aggressive Treatment Methods
If your family member has worsening health or a terminal illness, chances are very good that she has been seeking curative therapies for her health conditions. Some of these treatment methods, like chemotherapy, are considered aggressive treatment methods. Over time, many people decide that they no longer want to deal with the side effects of curative therapies. That’s when end-of-life care options that lean on comfort care feel like the better choice.
Comfort Care Is about Relieving Symptoms
The term comfort care describes a type of care that is all about relieving the symptoms that your family member is experiencing. Curing the ailment may not be possible but treating the symptoms can be. And comfort care often involves treatment methods that curative therapies don’t usually include, like massage therapy. Some of the symptoms your family member might want to manage could include difficulty breathing, pain, nausea, anxiety, and more.
Some People Think This Type of Care Isn’t Medical Care
Because end-of-life care isn’t always talked about, most people don’t realize that comfort care solutions are a part of their family member’s medical treatment plan. Therapies like massage therapy help to relieve pain and swelling. They also may be prescribed by your family member’s doctor as a way to help her to have a better quality of life.
Your Family Member Isn’t Giving Up
It’s important to understand that by embracing comfort care therapies, your elderly family member isn’t giving up at all. She’s adapting her care plan to meet her needs in ways that may be far more effective for her than curative treatments are. Understanding that her doctors are still involved in her care plan can help many family caregivers and family members understand that this isn’t a type of care that means your senior is just waiting for the end of her life.
Comfort Care Also Helps Family Members
There’s a lot of pressure on you as your senior’s family caregiver as well as on other family members to help as much as possible. But there comes a point where you may not feel as if you know what to do for your elderly family member. You may also be concerned about how you’re feeling about her current state and her future. End-of-life care providers are able to help you to find the resources that you and other family members need in order to do what you need to do.
Comfort care is an excellent choice for your senior when she’s not interested in curative or aggressive treatment options any longer. End-of-life care services can ensure that your elderly family member is able to have the best possible quality of life.
If you or an aging loved-one is considering End of Life Care in North Texas please contact the caring staff at Arcy Healthcare today. 469-293-1515
My name is Jimmie Stapleton. I am the founder and CEO of Arcy Healthcare. Arcy Healthcare includes Arcy Hospice, Arcy Supportive Care, MaximaCare Home Health and Arcy at Home.
Arcy Hospice was opened in 2007 to provide care and support for individuals and families facing a life limiting illness. It was established after my wife Ellen, who had been diagnosed with breast cancer, had completed her chemo and radiation therapies. At that time, things were looking positive, and we wanted to do something for our community that had been so supportive of our family during her treatments. Unfortunately, the cancer returned a few years later, and she subsequently passed away under our care in 2010.
In the years that followed, I began to see the need to provide the same level of excellent care to patients across the continuum of care. Therefore, we have added a home health division (MaximaCare Home Health), a palliative care division (Arcy Supportive Care), and a home care division, (Arcy at Home). With the addition of these divisions, we can meet most of the post-acute care needs for you and your family in your home.
I started Arcy Hospice with my wife as my motivation to provide exceptional care and support in the patient’s home, where they are surrounded by family and where they feel most comfortable. I’m proud to say that our staff provides some of the best in home care in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area.
Please let us know if we can enrich the quality of life for you or a loved one.
Sincerely,
Jimmie Stapleton – Founder and CEO
Arcy Healthcare
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