If you’re getting older or living with a serious or chronic illness, you may be receiving care from a primary care doctor and one or more specialists. The care they provide is essential, but many people don’t realize there are additional services that can help manage symptoms, improve comfort and quality of life, and help your family, too.

The official term for this type of care is “palliative medicine” (but who can pronounce that?). It’s sometimes called symptom management, advanced illness care, or serious illness care. Think of it as another type of medical specialty that focuses on YOU, not your disease. Why not get the most complete, comprehensive care possible?

Learn more about palliative care

Everyone deserves to live on their own terms, especially at the end of life. That’s what hospice care can offer – it’s about giving you and your loved ones the opportunity to make decisions and choose what matters most. Ice cream for breakfast? A cocktail with friends? We’re here to help, not judge.

Often, when someone is being treated for a serious illness, they wind up getting a lot of painful, expensive treatments and procedures, even after those treatments stop working. Research shows that many people on hospice care actually live longer than people with the same disease who continue receiving aggressive treatment.

Add to this a survey that showed that about 60% of Americans would prefer to die at home, but only 30% think they will. Almost no one says they want to die in a hospital, but about a third of people do.

Learn more about hospice care

Sometimes our hospice patients need more care than can be provided wherever they call home. Our two inpatient units, Esther’s House and Ernestine M. Raclin House, are a home away from home when short-term medical care is needed for pain or symptom management. It’s also available when a caregiver needs a brief respite.

Center for Hospice Care has developed three innovative programs to help meet the needs of our patients. HeartWize for advanced heart disease, BreatheEazy for COPD, and our DementiaCare program address the unique needs of patients affected by these diseases. End-stage heart disease, lung disease, and dementia now comprise over half the diagnoses of all CHC patients. Each of these programs includes the use of emotional, spiritual and complementary approaches to care as appropriate in addition to family support.

There are few, if any, things scarier and more devasting than learning your child has a serious advanced illness. Center for Hospice Care is here to help. Our pediatric hospice and palliative care team focuses on improving the quality of living for infants, children, adolescents and young adults. Our services are designed to reduce the distress patients and their loved ones feel. Like palliative and hospice care for adults, pediatric hospice and palliative care alleviates pain and other symptoms associated with the patient’s condition. However, unlike adult hospice and palliative care, it can be part of the treatment plan even when curative or life-prolonging care is being sought.

CHC is one of the only hospice organizations in northern Indiana that accepts pediatric patients. Our team members understand that pediatric patients and their families have special needs and are trained to help them live as comfortably and fully as possible. Care can be provided in a hospital, extended care facility or at home.

Coverage for services may be available under Medicaid or private insurance. If these insurance options don’t apply, we have a self-pay program that’s administered on a sliding fee scale. No one is ever turned away due to an inability to pay.

Perinatal palliative care is compassionate support for parents and families who find out during pregnancy that their baby has a potentially life-limiting condition. Care focuses on the needs of the family in a holistic nature. This support is provided from the time of diagnosis throughout the baby’s life. Perinatal palliative care helps parents embrace whatever time they have with their child and make it meaningful, memorable and family-focused.

Learn more about perinatal palliative care

Grief is a natural response to losing someone we hold dear. You don’t have to go through this alone. Our licensed counselors and volunteers who facilitate programs are here to help you cope with pain and sadness healthily.

Our grief and bereavement programs are available at no charge to anyone in our nine-county service area. We have support groups and activities for children, teens and adults. If you prefer to have a private counseling session, our grief counselors will be happy to accommodate your referral. In addition, we offer an annual grief camp for youth, an annual family workshop and art counseling.

Center for Hospice Care’s licensed counselors have helped and educated thousands of grieving people. Please contact us to learn more about the many programs available to you and your family.

Learn more about bereavement services