One of the things I have really grown deep appreciation for while working in hospice, is the different members of the team and the role they each play in providing comfort and support to patients and families. I admire and respect every member of the team, often being especially vocal about the home health aides and vo
I’m certain many people have had different experiences with Hospice.
I know one thing: they cared for my paternal grandparents, and through that process, they also cared for my dad. I am eternally grateful to the care that they took in serving my family, at the end.
I know not everyone will have good experiences with hospice -- we as people are different, and so are the groups we make to serve each other.
I bring this up because I found the blog The Hospice Heart, where many of the blogs are written by a Gabrielle Jimenez. The one linked is written by her, and I think it does us good to look at death from this point of view, as well -- from those who work with it daily.
I’ve done a lot in looking at mortuary and funeral rituals here, and I will forever recommend Caitlin from “Ask A Mortician” for any and all information relating to that, but I have not done as much in looking into caretakers for the end of life. It’s something I have an interest in myself, and something I feel we all need to be more informed about.
The article above is a comforting one, about the people who take calls “after hours” from those who are living with the dying. It’s a gentle read about the care this hospice group puts into their patients, and how they try to be there for them, at all hours, even “after hours”.
Her blog is full of plenty of other good reads, and I will recommend it in general to get an idea of the mindset of one in this job, as well as what they’ve seen and experienced with their patients. You may thus find relief in hearing about near-death experiences, in knowing how others have moved on since the death of a loved one, in how their death impacted the workers, or how they found peace at the end of the line. In the future, I hope to explore this blog further, to include articles that may be more relevant to the fear itself, or how people deal with death when they know they’re dying.
For now, I think this is a nice, feel good read, in a strange way, and I leave you with that for today.
And of course, a gentle reminder that you can impact people who cross your path just as much, through your own kindness.
