Advance Directive

"Palliative care means patient and family-centered care that optimizes quality of life by anticipating, preventing, and treating suffering. Palliative care throughout the continuum of illness involves addressing physical, intellectual, emotional, social, and spiritual needs and to facilitate patient autonomy, access to information, and choice. (73 FR 32204, June 5, 2008)."

• Home - Home Care & Hospice Association of New Jersey (homecarenj.org)
• House Calls Are Making a Comeback." Freudenheim, Milt. New York Times April 20, 2014 page BU9.
  Web access April 19, 2014

Hospice is a program of care and support for people who are terminally ill. Here are some important facts about hospice:

• Hospice helps people who are terminally ill live comfortably.
• Hospice isn't only for people with cancer.
• The focus is on comfort, not on curing an illness.
• A specially trained team of professionals and caregivers provide care for the "whole person", including his or her physical, emotional, social, and spiritual needs.
• Services may include physical care, counseling, drugs, equipment, and supplies for the terminal illness and related condition(s).
• Care is generally provided in the home.
• Family caregivers can get support.

Home - Home Care & Hospice Association of New Jersey (homecarenj.org)

Letting Go What should medicine do when it can't save your life? by Atul Gawande. The New Yorker Annals Of Medicine. August 2, 2010