Answer the following multiple choice/ TRUE or FALSE questions to the best of your ability

1. Hospice is where you go to die..........TRUE OR FALSE

2.People always feel worse when they decide it is time for hospice..........TRUE OF FALSE.

3. There are some very special opportunities for hospice patients including.
  a. Time to savor favorite memories.
  b. Conversations to bless children and grand children.
  c. Family/friend meetings to mend-fences and reconcile broken relationships.
  d. Prayer times and pastoral visits to reinforce and/or finish spiritual work.
  e. All of the above and more.

4.Hospice is giving up..........TRUE OF FALSE.

5. There is a team of people to support a patient during the time in hospice. Members of that team are...
  a. A doctor.
  b. A nurse.
  c. A Certified Nursing Assistant
  d. A Social Worker (M.S.W.)
  e. A Chaplain
  f. All of the above.

6. After the patient dies, the hospice provides the following services.
  a. Season tickets to the Broncos.
  b. Season tickets to the Rockies.
  c. Season tickets to the Nuggets
  d. Grief support groups and classes to individuals and families.

7.Hospice care can last for weeks, months and sometimes even longer..........TRUE OF FALSE

                                                                                          Answers.

1. FALSE.

It is true that most hospice patients die. But hospice is where a patient finds care to live the last chapter of their life. This very important season of life, end of life, can be the time that helps the rest of life make sense. Plus, while there is In-Patient hospice care, most of hospice care is in the comfort and familiar surroundings of a persons home, so it is not somewhere-you-go. 
2. FALSE.

After patients and families face the reality of a terminal diagnosis, stop the difficult curative treatments and begin comfort-care, often they feel better mentally, emotionally and physically. Unfortunately, the disease process has not stopped, but, if they select hospice in adequate time, they are in a better condition to face their future and maximize the present.
3. E. ALL OF THE ABOVE.

 A terminal diagnosis is feared and dreaded by nearly everyone, especially young people. This is understandable and needs to be validated. However, within this traumatic situation there are unique opportunities that come only once in a life time. In the Old Testament of the Holy Scriptures, some of the best reading comes after the patriarchs received a terminal diagnosis: Moses, Joshua, Abraham, David, and more. After the diagnosis, some of life's most important work takes place.
4. FALSE.

Even though a doctor recognizes a condition that is expected to be terminal within an estimated time period of 6 months and that a patient admitted to hospice stops curative treatments, those things do not mean the patient or family gives up. They can continue to pray for healing and hope that miraculously they recover. They continue to love life and people and receive every day as a blessing filled with opportunity and potential. Sometimes patients are discharged from hospice or live much longer than originally anticipated.
5. F, ALL OF THE ABOVE.

The hospice team is specialized in this type of medical practice. They understand the physical and emotional challenges facing the patient and family better than any other discipline and they are eager to support the patient and family. However, they will not insert themselves into the situation to control it, but will be responsive to the patient's and family's needs and requests. 
6. D.

I have made many hospice visits where sports games were on the TV and patients, family and friends were excited about it--more than once, Bronco's blankets on the bed. Even though that is true, of course I am inserting a little humor here and you know we don't provide season tickets. However, there are wonderful resources that are available, especially in the area of grief support. It is important to properly grieve so we can live emotionally healthy lives. This helps us personally and honors the memory of the deceased.
7. TRUE.

Too many people avoid hospice because they don't know the many benefits mentioned above nor have we as a faith community or a culture that taught people how to die. Death is viewed as an "interruption of life" or a "dreaded reality" instead of a part of life that can be faced with grace and dignity. People can decide for hospice much earlier than most people do. As long as their disease process continues and there is a decline they remain hospice appropriate and qualify for the hospice benefit in most insurance policies, medicare or medicaid. There have been people who have been hospice patients for a year or more.

I discovered the compassionate world of hospice through a series of ministry changes and opportunities. It was nothing I pursued. If I had not found it, I do not know who would have told me.

So now, I am committed to tell you, my colleague in ministry, something I wish I had understood much earlier in my ministry. Sometime, you will need to know this.

How you care matters!!!