After helping patients and families in the MorseLife Health System community navigate the end-of-life journey, MorseLife Hospice & Palliative Care is expanding throughout Palm Beach County.
“As one of the nation’s preeminent providers of senior services for nearly 40 years, MorseLife Health System celebrates life, and that is never more evident than in our hospice and palliative care programs, which serve people of any age,” MorseLife President & CEO Keith A. Myers said. “We respect the individual and family’s wishes, treating everyone with dignity in meaningful, positive ways.”
MorseLife Hospice & Palliative Care was recognized by the Florida Legislature as the state’s only teaching hospice as Palm Beach Hospice by MorseLife in 2018. As a teaching facility, MorseLife Hospice stays at the forefront of new ideas and the creation of best practices. Three years ago, it launched its Rest Assured program, which provides a compassionate caregiver or volunteer to be a reassuring presence during the final hours of anyone in its hospice care.
It is typical to contact hospice when a physician determines that an individual has a life prognosis of six months or less. However, a 2019 nationwide survey conducted by MorseLife found that 40 percent of respondents incorrectly believed that the sole purpose of hospice is to sedate terminally ill patients to provide pain/anxiety relief.
MorseLife Hospice & Palliative Care offers pain and symptom management, medication, specialized equipment, psychology, and spiritual support for the patient and family, as well as grief support and ongoing bereavement and counseling.
The 2019 survey also found that 87 percent of Americans support the use of medical marijuana as a treatment option for terminally ill patients. MorseLife is the only senior living provider in Florida authorized to make cannabinoid-based therapies available among its numerous other treatment options in a variety of care settings.
MorseLife Hospice & Palliative Care provides services wherever an individual lives: at home, in a hospital, skilled nursing or assisted living venues.
For more information, call (561) 868-6573 or visit www.morselife.org/hospice.
