CRESTVIEW — Covenant Hospice observes November, National Hospice and Palliative Care Month, with this message: it’s never too early to create an advance directive. Advance directives are legal documents (living wills, durable power of attorneys, or health care proxy documents) that state your decisions for end-of-life care.
“It is important for everyone to have an advance directive regardless of present health status,” Covenant Hospice President Dale O. Knee said.
See www.covenanthospice.org/begintheconversation for information about obtaining and filling out an advance directive.
Hospice care provides expert pain management, symptom control, psychosocial support and spiritual care to patients and families when a cure is impossible. Medicines and equipment that keep a patient comfortable can be brought to the home. Palliative care brings these skilled services earlier in an illness and can be provided with other treatments.
More than 1.5 million people with a life-limiting illness annually get help from the nation’s hospice and palliative care providers.
“It’s about quality of life. With the help of hospice and palliative care, patients and families can focus on what’s most important, living as fully as possible in spite of illness,” Knee said.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Advance directives take focus during Hospice and Palliative Care Month