Whether you or your family member has been dealing with serious illness for a while, or just received a serious diagnosis, you are probably faced with a lot of difficult decisions. These include:
- how and where you or your family member want to be cared for,
- what treatments will be best for you or your family member, and
- where you should go for more information.
Receiving hospice care is just one of several choices for people coping with a terminal illness. The first decision is whether hospice care at home is their most appropriate choice.
The other options besides hospice care include:
- Hospital care, but not in a special hospice bed or unit
- Nursing home without hospice care
- Care from a regular home health agency, from nurses and other skilled staff or from home health aides
- Care at home from the family alone, without support from hospice or a home health agency
American Hospice Foundation 