Hospice Helps Patients and Families Focus on Quality of Life

Karen Ann Quinlan Hospice Makes More Meaningful Moments Possible

(NEWTON, NJ) – November is National Hospice Month and hospices across the country are reaching out to raise awareness about the highest quality care for all people coping with life-limiting illness.

“Hospice is probably the most important thing that people don’t know about. That’s why raising awareness during National Hospice Month is so important,” said Cecelia Clayton, MPH, Executive Director at Karen Ann Quinlan Hospice. “ ‘Know You Options’ is the theme of this year’s national campaign. Patients facing a life-limited illness have the right to choose the care they want. It’s important to make your wishes known to your family and doctors before the need arises.”

“National Hospice Month brings awareness not only to the hospice program but also to the nurses, home care aides, therapists, and social workers who make a remarkable difference for the patients and families they serve.”

“Every year, nearly 1.6 million people living with a life-limiting illness receive care from hospice and palliative care providers in this country,” said J. Donald Schumacher, president and CEO of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization. “These highly-trained professionals ensure that patients and families find dignity, respect, and love during life’s most difficult journey.”

Hospice is not a place. Hospice care programs provide pain management, symptom control, psychosocial support, and spiritual care to patients and their families when a cure is not possible.

Hospice care combines the highest level of quality medical care with the emotional and spiritual support that families need most when facing the end of life. Through this specialized quality care, we see many patients and their families experience more meaningful moments together. Hospice helps them focus on living despite a terminal diagnoses.

As Nancy Gallo, a hospice volunteer at Karen Ann Quinlan Hospice noted, “”Karen Ann Quinlan Hospice is a wonderful organization that helped me and my family get through the toughest days of my husband’s battle with cancer and which helped Joe die with dignity in his own home. Words cannot express how grateful I am that Karen Ann Quinlan Hospice was there to help us in our darkest hours.”

“Karen Ann Quinlan Hospice is truly a remarkable organization which provided us such amazing, unconditional support when we needed it most; thus, I felt the need to repay them in some way. To that end, I have been a volunteer at Karen Ann Quinlan Hospice for over a year and absolutely love being a part of this wonderful organization,” said Gallo.

Throughout the month of November, Karen Ann Quinlan Hospice will be joining organizations across the nation hosting activities that will help the community understand how important hospice care can be.

Karen Ann Quinlan Hospice opened on April 15, 1980, and is a not-for profit organization offering a full continuum of high quality medical, emotional and spiritual services to hospice patients, their family members and the community. The hospice has had remarkable growth and now serves Sussex, Warren, and Pike Counties. We are the preferred hospice provider for the Atlantic Health Care System in Sussex, Warren and Pike Counties.

In 2014, the Karen Ann Quinlan Home for Hospice opened. The Home for Hospice is the only free-standing in-patient provider for our area. The facility is designed to ensure that individuals with life-limiting illnesses who are not able to return to their own homes will receive gentle end-of-life care from our exceptional clinicians.

Karen Ann Quinlan Hospice has many community activities planned during the month of November including: Haircuts for Hospice, Holiday Elegance Fashion Show, a Caregivers Essay contest in partnership with United Way Caregivers Coalition, hospice volunteer training, a Flag raising ceremony on Veteran’s Day, “It’s a Wonderful Life” holiday concert and more. We will also be issued a proclamation from the Board of Chosen Freeholders on November, 9 recognizing National Hospice Month.

Please visit our website at www.KarenAnnQuinlanHospice.org to learn more about all our upcoming events and more information about hospice and advance care planning.