Sister Lindsay and I visited two people in hospice care facilities today. One is a short term facility occupying a portion of one floor in a large city hospital while the other is a separate, longer term care center located in the country with beautiful landscaped grounds surrounding the one-story building. 80% of all hospice care, however, is provided in the patient's home and in nursing homes as was the case last year when hospice was called into the home of my high school friend during the final weeks of her terminal illness.
Hospice is not a place but a special concept of care designed to provide comfort and support to patients and their families when a life-limiting illness no longer responds to cure-oriented treatments. Hospice care neither prolongs life nor hastens death. The goal of hospice care is to improve the quality of a patent's last days by offering comfort and dignity with a special emphasis on controlling a patient's pain and discomfort.
The word "hospice" stems from the Latin word "hospitium" meaning guesthouse. It was originally used to describe a place of shelter for weary and sick travelers returning from religious pilgrimages. During the 1960's, Dr. Cicely Saunders, a British physician, began the modern hospice movement by establishing St. Christopher's Hospice near London. St. Christopher's organized a team approach to professional care giving, and was the first program to use modern pain management techniques to compassionately care for the dying. The first hospice in the United States was established in New Haven, Connecticut in 1974. Today there are more than 4,700 hospice programs in the United States.
I had the opportunity to work closely with the hospice nurse for several days when my high school classmate was close to the end of her mortal journey. As a result, I gained a deep respect for the deep personal commitment of hospice caregivers who try to ease the burden and suffering of the patients in their care while addressing the mental and emotional needs of other family members in difficult times of transition.
When Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount, He told His followers:
Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. (Matthew 5:7)
President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Second Counselor in the First Presidency, has taught that when our hearts are filled with the love of God, something good and pure happens to us. We become kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving. Because we all depend on the mercy of God, how can we deny to others any measure of the grace we so desperately desire for ourselves? It has been my experience that hospice workers and volunteers offer that kind of mercy to those whom they serve.
Standing quietly by the beside of someone you love who is dying has a humbling effect upon you. And when you know that this individual has lived a good life, loved the Lord with a sincere heart, and sought in his or her way to serve others, you can actually discern a sense of peace and love present in the room itself whether it is a hospice care facility or in that person's own home.
It is comforting to know that we are never truly alone while we are here on earth. Our Heavenly Father has sent us here to fulfill the purpose for which we have been created, but He is always mindful of our desires, needs, and concerns. Much of the time we become the physical hands and hearts that God employs to lift up the weary and down-trodden, to nurse the sick, and to comfort others in times of trial and sorrow.
President Monson reminds us of our sacred responsibility to ever watch over one another, assisting in times of need. "Let us not be critical and judgmental," he says, "but let us be tolerant, ever emulating the Savior’s example of loving-kindness. In that vein, may we willingly serve one another. May we pray for the inspiration to know of the needs of those around us, and then may we go forward and provide assistance."
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