“How does hospice care for patients with memory loss?”
My mother has memory loss and will be sent to hospice care. How does hospice care for patients with memory loss?
1 Answer
Hospice primarily focuses on the physical, emotional, and spiritual aspects of care. There is great variability in the quality of these services, but ideally, they manage many of the discomforts associated with a terminal illness such as dry mouth, constipation, urinary retention, delirium, pain, wound care, etc. Since dementia is a terminal illness, hospice workers are trained to take into account the cognitive impairments in their treatment planning, but they do not treat cognitive impairment per se, other than eliminating non-essential medications that could have adverse cognitive effects. Again, the more academically based hospice programs may have greater appreciation for the cognitive issues and their management than some of the smaller community hospice services.
