How Does the Hospice Communicate with the Patient’s Family?

Southern California

Communicating with the patient’s family is a major consideration made during the creation of a hospice care treatment plan. The priority of a hospice team will always be the patient, but they are also meant to aid the family as well.

Here are a few examples of professionals included within a hospice team that are used to communicate with and support the family of a patient:

• Social Workers: A hospice social worker essentially oversees all of the communications between the family, patient, and hospice services. Social workers serve as a bridge between the medical professionals and the family and ensure that both the patient’s and the family’s needs are being met.
• Counselors: Hospice family counselors serve to communicate with families on an emotional and therapeutic level. Understanding and coping with the implications of a loved one going into hospice can be incredibly hard. Having a trained counselor to help families communicate their emotions and cope in a healthy manner is critical.
• Chaplains: Chaplains are religious professionals who aid the family and patient through spiritual guidance.

An effective hospice team should offer the services of all these professionals. Ideally, these services will be automatically included within a hospice care plan.