Hospice is a program of compassionate, family-centered care. It allows the patient with a terminal illness to remain at home, in greater control of his or her life, surrounded by the people and things that give life meaning. The physical, emotional, and spiritual aspects of terminal disease affect everyone in the home. Hospice care serves the entire family, not just the patient, and continues after death with bereavement support.
Hospice concentrates on making patients as free of pain as they want to be so they can make the most of the time that remains to them. We believe quality of life to be as important as length of life
The hospice team includes nurses, home health aides, social workers, trained volunteers, chaplains, a physician, and a bereavement coordinator. This experienced team develops a plan of care with the patient, family, and physician and provides instruction and support to the caregiver. The caregiver can be a spouse, family member, or friend who accepts the day-to-day responsibility for the patient's care.

Nurse: RN's and LPN's assess the patient's condition, educate the family/caregiver and help with the management of pain and symptom control. A 24 hour "on-call" service is provided, seven days a week.

Home Health Aide: Certified Nursing Assistants assist with bathing, personal care, and light housekeeping.

Social Worker: Trained and experienced social workers provide emotional support for families and help with crisis intervention and prevention.

Physician: Our physician is trained in pain management and end of life care. Fluent in English and Spanish, Dr. Holland consults with the patient's primary physician in caring for the patient and visits patients where ever they reside to care for the patient's medical needs.

Chaplain: Spiritual support is an important part of hospice care. The role of the Hospice For Utah chaplain is to engage in spiritual care. The hospice chaplain is non-denominational, representing no particular faith tradition, and is able to help provide spiritual guidance and care for patients and their families

Volunteers: Hospice For Utah volunteers provide care and support services for individuals and families. All volunteers are provided with extensive training and support and work closely with the rest of the hospice team to provide consistent care.

Music Clinician (Music Thanatologist): Hospice For Utah's music clinician delivers live prescriptive music at the bedside with voice and harp that is designed to respond to the individual needs and symptoms of the person who is suffering. The goal is to relieve the physical, emotional, and spiritual pain that may burden the terminally ill patient and their loved ones. Deeply spiritual in intention and impact, this calming method of care is also very practical. It offers patients and their loved ones something meaningful and specific when invasive forms of medical technology are no longer available.

In addition, Hospice provides medications, supplies, equipment, and additional helpers in the home as needed.

To view a video of Hospice For Utah's CEO Kit Jackson talking about some