Palliative and Hospice Care

Palliative and hospice care can provide services to assure the highest quality of life and best possible end-of-life care for your loved one. These resources can help you understand the difference between palliative and hospice care and how to choose the best hospice service for your family.  A few resources are specific to Parkinson's disease (PD).


Downloadable Documents | Online Articles | Podcasts and Webinars


Downloadable Documents (PDF)

Choosing a Quality Hospice for You or Your Loved Ones

Published by The National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization

Some questions developed to help you and your family identify important factors when selecting a hospice agency (PDF).


Palliative and Hospice Care

Published by the Parkinson’s Foundation

The information on this 2-page fact sheet (PDF) will help you better understand the differences between hospice and palliative care.  By learning about and discussing available options before they are needed, families can make thoughtful decisions instead of feeling pressured or rushed during a stressful or crisis situation.


Palliative Care Roadmap

Published by the Washington State Department of Health, July 2020

Serious conditions often cause difficult symptoms, challenging treatments, and caregiver stress. Fragmented care and frequent transitions between care settings, unmet needs, and increased responsibilities put stress and burden on patients, family members, and other caregivers. This 40-page booklet seeks to help you understand palliative care and how it can make your care more predictable and manageable.


Online Articles

About Hospice Care

Published by The National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization

Information to help understand what hospice is and how it works, including questions to ask when choosing a hospice service and frequently asked questions about hospice.


About Palliative Care

Published by The National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization

Information to help understand what palliative care is and how it works. This resource includes a frequently asked questions page and a chart to help determine if palliative or hospice care is the right choice for your loved one.


Choosing a Hospice: 17 Questions to Ask

Published by The American Hospice Foundation

Expert tips for questions to ask that will help you to choose the most appropriate hospice.


Does Medicare Cover Hospice?

Published by RetireGuide, February 24, 2021

This easy to read article explains how Medicare pays for hospice care, what services hospice provides under Medicare rules, the very small out-of-pocket expenses you may experience, rules for enrolling with a hospice provider, and a link to the Medicare.gov, "Find a Hospice Agency" page.


Find a Hospice Agency

Published by Medicare

Using this online resource, you can search and find Medicare-certified hospices in your area and compare their quality of care.


When is it Time to Call Hospice?

Published by Agingcare.com

This article speaks to how important it is to understand when to engage hospice, and how one qualifies for services.


Podcasts and Webinars

Expect the Best: How to Get the Most Out of Your Hospice Care

By Family Caregiver Alliance, January 27, 2021

In this one-hour webinar registered nurse, Helen Bauer, and spiritual counselor, Jerry Fenter, both from The Heart of Hospice in Beaumont, TX, dispelled myths about hospice, offered suggestions for how to pick a good hospice service, explained the rights of patients, and who is involved on a hospice care team.
Webinar Notes on the Stanford PD Community Blog


How to Choose the Best Hospice for Your Loved One

By End-of-Life University, January 17, 2024

Karen Wyatt, MD, is host of the End-of-Life University podcast. In this episode she talks with hospice nurse and author Barbara Karnes, RN, about why they hope people will choose hospice for care at the end of life and how to choose the right hospice for your loved one.


Understanding End-of-Life Care Options

By NIH National Institute on Aging, December 29, 2020

This 4-minute video looks at options for care at the end-of-life, explains the difference between hospice and palliative care, and discusses where you can receive end-of-life care, organizations to help you access end-of-life care and ways to pay for end-of-life care.


Palliative Care

By Parkinson Association of Northern California, October 23, 2021

This 34-minute question and answer session was part of PANC’s 2021 annual conference.  UCSD palliative care physician Grace Amadi, MD, describes what “palliative care” means and its benefits to the person with PD, their caregiver, and their family.  She also shares how to to get the maximum benefit out of the palliative care experience.


Palliative Care

By the University of Colorado Movement Disorder Center, September 25, 2021

This half hour talk by movement disorder specialist Christina Vaughan, MD, dispells myths about palliative care, explains how palliative care is an integral part of an interdisciplinary Parkinson's care team, how palliative care differs from typical neurological care, the roles of each member of the neuro-palliative care team, how to find palliative care, and at what points in Parkinson's progression a palliative care consult could be of particular use.


Palliative care: Caring for the whole person

By the Stanford APDA Information & Referral Center and Stanford Parkinson's Community Outreach Program, January 15, 2024

Jocelyn Jiao, MD, is both a palliative care doctor and movement disorder specialist at Stanford University. In this talk to the Stanford Palo Alto PD support group she discussed the big picture about an individual's whole health and defined palliative care.
Download the slides

 


Palliative Care for Parkinson's Disease

By the American Parkinson Disease Association, September 7, 2022

In this episode of Dr. Gilbert Hosts, her guest is movement disorders specialist Jori Fleisher, MD. Dr. Fleisher has expertise in palliative care. She responded to audience questions about how the palliative care approach can benefit people with PD and help improve your quality of life throughout the continuum of disease.


Treating PD -- Quality of Life, Wellness, and a Neuro-palliative Approach

By the Stanford APDA Information & Referral Center and Stanford Parkinson's Community Outreach Program, September 8, 2021

Maya Katz, MD, movement disorder specialist at Stanford University, speaks for about 45-minutes before answering questions.  Topics covered include how PD can be treated with a focus on wellness and quality-of-life, the importance of exercise (physical/movement, speech/voice, etc), the role of resiliency in PD, and what the term "Neuro-palliative" means.
Download the slides

 


What Is Palliative Care

By GetPalliativeCare.org

This 2-minute video uses the metaphore of a bridge to illustrate how palliative care provides support by shoring up your bridge when you face a serious illness. The text on the page above and below the video window defines palliative care, explains how a palliative care team can support your family and provides a link to an online quiz to determine if palliative care if right for your situation.



Last updated December 2023 by Stanford Parkinson's Community Outreach