Home Hospice Care
Fort Myers - Cape Coral
Home hospice care in Fort Myers and Cape Coral is just a phone call away.
Home hospice care is a preferred option for many individuals. Sometimes patients require more support than is provided through traditional hospice in-home services. Abby Services can help provide additional support by referring in-home caregivers to assist and support your hospice team.
What is hospice home care?
Hospice care focuses on managing a terminally ill patient’s pain and symptoms. Hospice care prioritizes comfort and quality of life by reducing pain and suffering for terminally ill patients. Hospice services can be provided inpatient at a facility or in-home by a team of professionals.
Inpatient hospice is typically needs-based and supports those with more technical management such as severe pain management, or other symptoms that require a more advanced level of care.
When given the choice, most individuals prefer home hospice care. Hospice in-home care is a team approach to managing a patient’s care and symptoms involving physicians, nurses, private caregivers, and more.
Your home hospice care team typically includes:
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A Home Hospice Care Physician who monitors a patient’s illness, directs a patient’s care team, and prescribes necessary treatments and medications.
- A Home Hospice Care Nurse who is trained to assess and work with the physician to manage a patient’s symptoms. They can provide hands-on care and work with both the patient and family to support and educate.
- A Hospice Social Worker who provides support to the patient and family by coordinating the logistics of the patient’s care. They work with insurance companies or the Veterans Administration to help with finances by directing families to funding sources for care. They may also assist with funeral planning or other tasks.
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A Hospice Chaplain who can assist in working with patients and their families to meet and address their spiritual needs.
- A Hospice Home Health Aide who is a caregiver specially trained to provide hands-on care and support to assist patients and their families.
Your hospice home care team can assist with many things.
Your hospice in-home care team members work to ensure that patients are comfortable, pain-free, and able to maintain the highest possible quality of life. Hospice home care is provided wherever the patient calls home which can be a private residence, assisted living community, or nursing home.
Hospice in-home care team members visit a patient on average 5-6 times a week to provide physical, emotional, and spiritual support to their patient. The hospice in-home care team monitors for pain, helps to manage symptoms, works to address nutritional needs, addresses emotional issues, and offers support. Team members may also teach the family caregiver how to provide care to the patient.
In Fort Myers and Cape Coral, Hope Hospice is the only service licensed to serve our area. Hope Hospice provides hospice at home services as well as inpatient hospice services at their hope hospice houses.
Sometimes families and hospice patients may require more support than is routinely provided by hospice.
Hospice in-home care has its limitations. Sometimes families or patients require or desire more support than is provided by hospice providers. Additional support may be provided by family or friends, but often is provided by home health care services that are a source for safe, insured, trained in-home caregivers.
These are the top 3 tips for home hospice care.
Abby Services has been helping families in Fort Myers and Cape Coral with hospice in-home caregivers since 1997!
In-home caregivers referred through Abby Services can assist your hospice team throughout Fort Myers and Cape Coral by performing the supplemental, non-medical care that keeps your loved ones comfortable in their own homes.
In fact, Scott Strachan, a nurse, and co-owner of Abby Services has direct hospice experience both as a CNA and as an RN.
With his experience, guidance, and support Abby Services can work to help guarantee that our clients receive all of the care they need. This professional knowledge and collaboration with hospice are some of the benefits of working with Abby Services.
Below you will find a guide for families in Cape Coral and Fort Myers seeking hospice in-home care, to help them find the right caregiver.
Your home hospice caregiver can assist with a wide variety of tasks including:
- Working with family and your hospice team to help ensure comfort and dignity.
- Repositioning for comfort and pain control
- Medication reminders
- Bathing
- Overnight care and support so that family caregivers can get the rest they deserve while a patient gets the support they need.
- Continence care
- Bathroom assistance
- Transfers in and out of bed and seated positions also transfer with supportive devices such as Hoyer lifts.
- Meal preparation, feeding, nutritional support, and encouragement.
- Range of motion and other requested exercises.
- Assisting with personal care
- Light housekeeping to support both the patient but also the family.
- Homemaking duties such as garbage and recyclables
- Pet care
- Assisting with phone calls and communication with family and friends
- Dressing
- Companionship and conversation
Why supplemental hospice care at home is important.
As discussed, your home hospice care team is comprised of doctors, nurses, social workers, and even chaplains. They are a valuable resource but their time is split between your loved one and many other patients as well.
Often hospice patients and their families desire more support than is available.
Typically hospice is able to provide in-home caregivers up to 3 times per week for bathing assistance. These caregiver visits typically last up to an hour.
While helpful, these visits rarely fully meet the needs of a hospice patient or the support a family needs. In these situations, patients and families are encouraged to seek outside home hospice support through home health care services such as Abby Services.
How can Abby Services help with home hospice care?
Managing a loved one’s care at home can be a daunting task. This is especially true when managing end-of-life care. Many spouses and families of hospice patients attempt to provide care themselves for as long as they possibly can.
Due to the nature of in-home hospice care, patients may require constant support and attention, to ensure they are clean and comfortable with their needs met. Even the most devoted family members may require additional support to meet the caregiving needs of their loved ones.
Often hospice home care patients require the support of multiple outside caregivers. Families can easily become overwhelmed when attempting to manage the schedules of multiple caregivers while struggling to meet their own needs and those of their loved one’s needs as well.
That’s why it is important to work with in-home hospice professionals who are familiar with the needs of families and hospice patients.
Abby Services has the hospice home care experience you need and access to a large pool of qualified, trained, professional in-home care providers to help you get the support you need.
Do you need help or want to know more? just call us at 239-590-0861 today!
5 Star in-home hospice care reviews.
We believe in the services we provide but dont take our word for it. You can see a number of reviews on Google and Facebook from family members who have used Abby Services including this one:
The last few months of my father’s life were very challenging with several visits to the hospital and subsequent stays at rehab facilities. My mother needed help to care for him and Abby Services provided professional and compassionate services.
Even after Hospice was involved, Abby Services continued to provide the extra care needed for my father and relief for my mother as his primary caregiver.
I want to thank the office staff at Abby Services for their outstanding customer service. They were always ready and willing to take care of any needs we had including staffing and schedule changes.
Also, I would like to thank the caregivers who came to the home, many of them went beyond providing basic care for my father. They took a personal interest in him and treated him with dignity and respect. They also showed compassion and empathy toward my mother, who is 89 and went out of their way to make sure that she was looked after.
I would highly recommend Abby Services to anyone needing help with in-home care.
Their dedication to providing excellent in-home care moves them to the top of the list in my book.