Category: Palliative Care
Articles about palliative care including the differences between palliative care and hospice care which is palliative care at end-of-life.
Compassion Crossing, LLC
Guiding Life's Journey with Care
Compassion Crossing, LLC
Guiding Life's Journey with Care
Supporting ME/CFS Patients: A Guide to Accessing Palliative Care Despite Stigma
A comprehensive guide for ME/CFS patients and their caregivers on accessing palliative care services while dealing with illness stigma. Learn about patient rights, caregiver support, and strategies for advocating with healthcare providers to ensure proper care and symptom management.
When “Just Keep Fighting” Leaves Young Adults With Cancer Alone in Their Pain
Fewer than one in five young adults with advanced cancer receive palliative care alongside treatment. Fear, misinformation, and thin training pipelines keep this care out of reach for the people who need it most. This article breaks down why the gap exists and what clinicians, advocates, and families can do about it.
When an IV Bag Becomes a Lifeline: Understanding Intravascular Dehydration in Older Adults
An elderly man kept landing in the hospital, dehydrated again and again, until a diagnosis finally explained why. Intravascular dehydration can hide in plain sight in older adults. Learn what sets it apart from ordinary dehydration, how IV fluids can restore comfort, and what caregivers should watch for near the end of life.
When Diabetes Insipidus Turns Into a Fight for Breath: A Caregiver’s Guide to CKD and CHF
When diabetes insipidus collides with failing kidneys and a struggling heart, caregiving gets complicated fast. This guide walks through real caregiving moments, explains why common heart drugs can be risky for someone with kidney disease, and outlines signs that mean it is time to call palliative care or hospice.
Advance Care Planning Is Protection, Not Paperwork
A hospital hallway is no place for a family to argue about your care. Only 3 in 10 American adults have an advance care plan, and in Kentucky, fewer than 1 in 10 do. Discover why a value-based plan, built with a specialist's help, protects your wishes and shields the people you love from having to make impossible decisions.
The Whole Person, the Whole Family: Why Hospice Care Needs More Than Medicine
Physical comfort is only part of the end-of-life picture. Mind, spirit, and family relationships need care too. This article shows what hospice chaplains, hospice social workers, and death doulas actually do, and why staying open to their help changes what the final chapter of life looks like for everyone involved.
Understanding Adrenal Cancer Metastasis: Managing Adrenal Insufficiency and Crisis
Adrenal cancer metastasis can lead to adrenal insufficiency and crisis, posing significant challenges. This article explores the connection between metastasis and adrenal crises. It offers practical advice for nurses, caregivers, and family members on providing the best care and support for their loved ones.
Helping Children Grieve: What Every Age Needs From You
Grief does not look the same in a toddler as it does in a teenager. This guide walks through six age ranges, from infancy to the teen years, showing how kids actually grieve and giving adults concrete, nature-friendly ways to help them heal without rushing the process.
When Loss Has Two Addresses: Grief Inside Prison and at Home
Grief does not stop at a prison gate. Learn how incarceration can create disenfranchised, anticipatory, and ambiguous loss for incarcerated people and the spouses, children, relatives, and friends who remain outside.
When a New Diagnosis Changes Your Future: Coping With Grief and Loss
A new diagnosis can bring fear, anger, sadness, and grief for the future you expected. Learn how anticipatory grief may appear, how to name the losses involved, and practical ways to integrate change while making room for the life that remains.
A Guide to Death Doulas: What They Do, Who They Are, and Why You Shouldn’t Wait
Most people only think about end-of-life care when a crisis forces the conversation. A death doula helps you start earlier, plan with intention, and navigate the full journey from advance care planning to grief support. Here's what they do, how they work, and why connecting with one now matters.
Reading the Body’s Warning Signs: The Multi-System Signature Approach to Hospice Care
Hospice patients rarely die from one failing organ. They die when several systems break down together. This guide shows hospice clinicians how to spot that combined pattern, called a multi-system signature, to strengthen eligibility documentation, target comfort measures, and judge how much time a patient may have left.
What Happens If Dementia Families Wait Too Long to Plan?
Nearly one in five people with dementia spend a week a month in the hospital during their last six months of life, often enduring interventions they never wanted. This article explains why waiting to plan, and relying on checkbox forms instead of a value-based advance directive, leaves families arguing in hallways instead of grieving in peace.
When Skin Starts to Fail: Understanding SCALE at the End of Life
Skin is the body's largest organ, and it's often the first to show signs of dying. This guide walks caregivers through SCALE, the most common skin changes near the end of life, gentle ways to reduce the risk of injury without medication, and exactly when to call the medical team. Comfort matters more than cure here.
When the Body Reaches a Crossroads: Early Palliative Care, Serious Illness, and the Right to a Dignified Life
After a stroke, organ failure, or any life-threatening medical crisis, palliative care can begin immediately and run alongside treatment. This article explains the difference between palliative and hospice care, when to request a consultation, and how healthcare navigators help families make confident, informed, and dignified decisions.
When Home Hospice Hurts: Caregivers, Mental Health, and the Quiet Power of Death Doulas
Home hospice lets patients stay where they feel safest, yet family caregivers often carry crushing emotional, physical, and financial strain. This article explores the mental health impact of home hospice caregiving and shows how death doulas offer practical, compassionate support that works alongside hospice, not instead of it.
When Everyone Knows Best: How Mixed Messages Break Down Family Caregiving
When two or more family members try to care for a chronically or terminally ill loved one, mixed messages can destroy trust, delay decisions, and drain everyone. This article names the top challenges and offers practical solutions to help your family form a unified front.
When the Circle Breaks: Understanding Hospice Live Discharge for Families of Adults with Dementia
A hospice live discharge is not a graduation. For families caring for a loved one with Alzheimer's disease or another dementia, it can feel like the floor dropping out from under them. This article explains why live discharges happen more often with dementia, what it costs families, and what can be done differently.
Hospice Care Is Growing Fast. Are Nurses and Families Ready for It?
Hospice care is reaching more families than ever, but the systems meant to support that growth have not kept pace. Nurses lack the training to document eligibility correctly. Family caregivers report financial strain, physical exhaustion, and feeling abandoned. Here is what agencies and families can do about it.
What Dementia Costs Your Family: The Risks You Control and the Plan You Need Now
Dementia cases have surged since 2020, and families are carrying more of the burden every year. This article walks through the modifiable risk factors you can act on today, why checkbox advance directives leave families exposed, and three real stories showing what happens when planning waits too long. It closes with a clear next step for anyone ready to protect their loved ones.
When Culture Shapes the Journey: What Every Palliative and Hospice Care Provider Needs to Know
Cultural beliefs shape how patients and families experience death, make decisions, and accept or refuse care. For palliative and hospice workers, understanding those beliefs is the foundation of good care. This article breaks down the top four challenges and gives you real, usable solutions to apply now.
Your Medication List Is Not a Formality: What Real Medication Review Looks Like
A listed side effect that has not shown up yet is not proof you are safe. Many common medications, including some over-the-counter drugs, carry a real risk of cognitive decline. Learn what a genuine medication review involves, why the system misses so much, and three ways you can protect yourself.
Your Numbers Are Not Your Story: What Really Matters in Heart and Lung Disease
When heart failure or lung disease enters your life, numbers like BNP, ejection fraction, and FEV1 can feel like a report card. But real health goes beyond lab results. Discover why your symptoms, daily choices, and early palliative care matter far more than chasing a better number.
Left Holding the Weight: The Quiet Crisis of Hospice Family Caregivers
When a loved one enters hospice, families step up — often giving up jobs, savings, and their own health to provide around-the-clock care. With no pay, limited leave, and mounting bills, the caregiving crisis has reached a breaking point. Here's what's happening and what can be done about it.