Fear of the unknown keeps many families from picking up the phone. So here is exactly what usually happens when hospice care begins, because it is far gentler, and far more reassuring, than most people expect.
A nurse comes to you, usually within a day
Hospice is not a place you go. It is a team that comes to wherever your loved one lives, a house, an assisted living apartment, memory care, or a nursing home. Often a nurse can visit within a day of your call.
Comfort comes first
The first priority is almost always getting symptoms under control, pain, breathing, nausea, anxiety, so your loved one can rest. Relief in those first hours is often the moment families feel they can finally breathe too.
A plan built around your family
The team learns who your loved one is, not just their diagnosis, and builds a plan around what matters to your family, including how often the nurse and aide visit, what equipment and medications are needed, and what support the caregivers need.
Support for the whole family
Hospice care includes a social worker, a chaplain if wanted, aides to help with personal care, and grief support for the family. You are not taking this on alone anymore.
And a real person, any hour
When something changes at 2 a.m., a real person answers the phone. At Lily Hospice, we are here day or night, weekends and holidays. Call (248) 955-5100 to ask anything, with no obligation.
Hospice isn’t giving up. It’s showing up.
