When is the right time to refer someone to hospice? The time is right when an individual is given a diagnosis that he or she has a condition that cannot be cured with further treatment. Hospice is not a death sentence, and it does not mean giving up hope. Hospice is a conscious decision made by individuals and their loved ones that seeking further treatment is no longer helpful, and that the most important thing is to maximize life that is still ahead. It is an option for comfort, rather than for treatments that may cause discomfort and may be useless. It is the luxury of planning the rest of your life according to your own wishes and to live each day to it’s fullest. Hospice provides you with expertise in getting your affairs in order, including how you wish to live and how you wish to die.

Once a terminal diagnosis is given and active treatment is not longer an option or a desire and a life expectancy of perhaps six months or less is given, it is not too early to begin hospice care. A plan of care will be established based on the needs of the individual at that time and will be adjusted over time, as needs change. In fact, patients often live far beyond six months, sometimes for even more than a year or 18 months, as a hospice patient. Regardless of the length of time, patients begin to receive the care and support they need immediately, as do their family members and care givers. The danger is not in choosing hospice too soon, the danger is in choosing hospice too late—when it is too late to get symptoms like pain under control, when it is too late to live each day to its fullest, when it is too late to take that last family vacation, when it is too late to prepare medical directives on how an individual wishes to be treated at the end of life.

If you have questions or doubts about the appropriateness of hospice, most hospices will provide a consultation visit at no cost to help you assess when it’s time for hospice.

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