Experts say that the motivation driving many terminally ill patients to consider suicide is fear. But while fear of pain, of isolation and of becoming a burden to others can be overwhelming, these experts add that people should know more about hospice care, which addresses all of these issues.
“People need to know there is an option out there. Death does not have to be painful or mean isolation. It can be a very valuable part of the life cycle,” said Pamela Mezyk, nurse manager of the hospice program at Little Company of Mary Hospital and Health Care Centers in Evergreen Park.
Patients served by hospice, which helps care for terminally ill patients and their families, generally in the home, typically have less than six months to live. But Mezyk said many physicians never mention hospice to their patients, or they wait too long before suggesting it.
“So many (physicians) will treat until death is a matter of days or hours away,” Mezyk said. “But people can receive hospice care for months before that. We will help you make the most of any time you have left.”
Little Company hospice workers, who include volunteers and professionals such as nurses, nursing aides, home health aides, homemakers, social workers, chaplains and physicians, care for about 50 people a week. Only six years ago the weekly count was about 10.
The numbers nationwide are moving in the same direction. According to the National Hospice Organization, based in Arlington, Va., in 1992 hospices served 246,000 patients and their families. In 1985, the year the nation’s first hospice census was conducted, 155,000 were served.
Although in-patient facilities where people can receive hospice care do exist, the focus is on keeping patients at home, where meals and daily care are not dependent upon a hospital’s schedule, and the surroundings are not threatening.
“You have your own pillow and quilt on your bed. You can look out at the yard that you loved, where you have planted flowers every year,” said Ellen Ramsden-Belotti, a social worker for Olympia Fields Osteopathic Hospital and Medical Center. “There is the physical care component and the spiritual component with hospice. And being cared for at home, for most people, is truly welcomed.”
Mitch Nowicki, 68, of Oak Lawn agreed.
“It’s absolutely more comfortable to be cared for at home,” said Nowicki, who has cancer and has been in Little Company’s hospice program since September. “It’s more calming and desirable.”
“And the food is better,” added Nowicki’s wife, Ruth.
Ruth Nowicki also said that the support she and her husband have received from the hospice workers has been tremendous.
“You always have this team of people there to help you. You can call them 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” said Ruth, who is her husband’s primary caregiver. She can get advice on anything that comes up that she doesn’t understand. “You know you’re not alone, and that helps a great deal.” And nurses visit several times a week.
Regardless of where patients receive this care, hospice workers emphasize that their commitment does not stop with the terminally ill patient but extends to family members as well.
“The family is experiencing as much fear as the patient,” said Susan Kelly, a field nurse for the hospice division of Ingalls Home Care, which is affiliated with Ingalls Memorial Hospital in Harvey. “The family does most of the caring for the patient, and we need to teach them many things, such as administering drugs, tube feeding, care of the skin and signs of the dying process. The more we work with them, the more they trust us, and they realize we’re only a phone call away.”
Kelly said she discusses all aspects of care with the family, and she also talks with them about the impending death.
“People ask about it because they wonder what will happen,” Kelly said. “I say that most of the time the patient will slip into a coma and be unable to communicate, but they still can hear us. So I tell the family to play the patient’s favorite music, to hold their hand, tell them you love them and tell them that it’s okay to go.”
