Medical Social Services and Spiritual Services

CompassionCare Hospice provides counseling and support for our patients and their families. We help through the emotional, financial, and spiritual process.

Medical Social Services

CompassionCare Hospice has a professional care team that provides the Medical, Spiritual, and Bereavement counseling needed for the patient and their family. We assist you with many of the tasks that seem difficult during this time. We help the patient and family in coming to terms with dying. We assist with tasks to make end of life treatment less complicated.

It is certainly a delicate and difficult period for a family to deal with a terminal illness. We assist with organization, coordination, and implementation of necessary paperwork, as well as daily medical coordination, including the Medicare Hospice Benefit and private insurance forms. Our Medical Social Worker provides emotional support to the patient, family and staff, and provides ongoing education and assistance with available CompassionCare Hospice services. The Medical Social Worker will make an initial visit to a new hospice patient within 5 days of admission and will continue to make visits on a monthly basis.

The Medical Social Worker will discuss and assist with:

Advanced Directives including Living Wills, Power of Attorney (POA), and Do-Not-Resuscitate (DNR) orders
- Living Will provides written instructions about the type of care they would like to receive in the event they become unconscious or are unable to make decisions.
- A Medical Power of Attorney provides written instructions assigning someone to be in charge of making important decisions on behalf if they become incapable of making those decisions on their own. This is also known as assigning a healthcare agent.

Determining care options, including respite care, handling coordination with the family and care facility
Coordinate placement into a personal care home or nursing facility if higher levels of care are needed
Serves as intermediary between hospice clinical team and bereavement staff
Provide information and support to determine what is right for the patient. The Medical Social Worker puts the family in touch with private duty care, Agency on Aging services, funeral homes and services, VA benefits, and help with determining insurance/financial assistance.

Spiritual Services

CompassionCare Hospice offers pastoral and bereavement care for both routine and emergency purposes. The Pastoral Care team at CompassionCare Hospice is comprised of ordained ministers with various religious affiliations. In keeping with the Hospice philosophy, the goal of the Pastoral Care team is to provide an interfaith forum where spiritual needs of the individual come first, not the denomination. Patients and their families will be relieved knowing CompassionCare Hospice provides spiritual services during their entire journey.

This spiritual support team can also assist with funeral arrangements and conducting memorial services.

Our services include:

On-Call Hospice Support – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
Pain Management – Treatments to help with pain and discomfort
Symptom Management – Treatments to aid with anxiety, breathing, nausea and other symptoms
Medication Coordination – Allows proper medication to be available when needed
Registered Hospice Nurses Visits – Scheduled to meet your individualized hospice nursing care plan

Nurse Aide Visits – Scheduled to aid with personal care: bathing, feeding, dressing and other duties
Hospice Team Visits – Hospice counseling, program implementation, insurance coverage, support and follow-up visits
Volunteer Visits – Scheduled for companionship, errands and light duties
Bereavement Services – 13-month bereavement services post-death to all family members and loved ones

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