Patient and Family Resources for Home Health, Palliative Care and Hospice

Palliative care resources

Booklets

• Hard Choices about CPR — This booklet explains CPR and its use in seriously ill patients, offering compassionate advice and questions to guide decision-making. Adapted from Hard Choices for Loving People.
• Hard Choices for Loving People —This booklet is a compassionate guide for helping patients and families with end-of-life medical decisions.
• Managing Your Pain — This booklet explains pain management medications, answers common questions about opioids and side effects, and includes a pain assessment tool for patients to share with their care team.
• Managing Shortness of Breath — This booklet helps patients and caregivers manage shortness of breath by describing symptoms, treatments, coping strategies, and providing tools for effective communication with the care team.
• What is Palliative Care? — This booklet explains palliative care, including who provides it, patient eligibility, how it differs from hospice care, and other key details.

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Hospice resources

Booklets

• Caregiver Confidence — This helpful resource boosts caregiver confidence for families of patients needing care at home. The booklet reviews common procedures for activities of daily living, creating comfort for the patient, and caring for the caregiver.
• Hard Choices about CPR — This booklet explains CPR and its use in seriously ill patients, offering compassionate advice and questions to guide decision-making. Adapted from Hard Choices for Loving People.
• Facing Hard Choices: A Guide to Artificial Nutrition and Hydration — This booklet explains artificial nutrition and hydration (ANH), offering compassionate advice and practical tips to help patients and families make informed end-of-life decisions.
• Hard Choices for Loving People — This booklet is a compassionate guide for helping patients and families with end-of-life medical decisions.
• Managing Your Pain — This booklet explains pain management medications, answers common questions about opioids and side effects, and includes a pain assessment tool for patients to share with their care team.
• Managing Shortness of Breath — This booklet helps patients and caregivers manage shortness of breath by describing symptoms, treatments, coping strategies, and providing tools for effective communication with the care team.
• Hospice Can Help — This booklet educates readers about hospice care — when it's time for hospice, who can refer a patient to hospice, what hospice will do, and more.
• When the Time Comes — This booklet is an excellent resource for educating caregivers about the dying process. Each section provides practical "What You Can Do" bullet points.

Care tips

• Dehydration in the Final Days
• Final Days
• Food and Fluid at End of Life
• Managing Anxiety
• Managing Constipation
• Managing Delirium
• Managing Nausea and Vomiting
• Managing Pain
• Managing Restlessness
• Managing Shortness of Breath
• Preventing Pressure Injury
• Self-Care for Caregivers
• Using Haloperidol (Haldol) to Treat Symptoms
• Using Lorazepam (Ativan) to Treat Anxiety
• Using Morphine to Treat Symptoms

Videos

Grief and loss resources

Booklets

• Seasons of Grieving: A Guide to Grief at the Holidays — This booklet helps families cope with grief during holidays, offering support, simple tips for remembering loved ones, and ways to handle special days like birthdays and anniversaries.
• What is Death? What is Grief? —This activity book explains death and grief to kids with simple language, coloring pages, and creative activities to help them share their feelings. It covers ways to talk to kids about death, offers tips for adults based on age, and provides a starting point for future conversations.
• When Teens are Grieving — Based on "Weird Is Normal: When Teenagers Grieve," this booklet shares teen author Jenny Wheeler's grief story and helps teens feel understood, with advice from grief therapists for extra support.
• When You are Grieving —This booklet helps families understand grief, find comfort, and move forward with hope. It includes sections like "Emotional Effects of Grief" and "Grieving Children and Teens," with simple tips to help.

Care tips

• The Mourner's Bill of Rights
• The Mourner's Bill of Rights (short version)
• The Six Needs of Mourning
• Grief and Loss Bibliography

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