Celebrating the Festive Season with Your Loved One in Hospice

The holiday season can be especially difficult for families with a loved one in hospice, making a traditional time of celebration touched with sadness. However, there are still many ways — and reasons — to feel joy through the festive season.

Your Hospice Team is there to Help You Celebrate 

The central focus for hospice communities and their services is the comfort and wellbeing of their patients, and this makes the holiday season especially important to us. Our team is here to provide support to families as well as loved ones, and if you need some help bringing the spirit of the season to life, we’re here for that too! Here are some insights from the team at our hospice in South Jersey:

• Bring the festive season to your loved one. Travel can be difficult, if not impossible for hospice residents, but that’s no reason not to miss out on a family occasion. Decorate your loved one’s room, bring in their favorite foods and home comforts and spend time together over your favorite holiday treats.
• Focus on calm celebration to avoid overstimulation. A regular celebration is a lot for anyone to handle, and could very well be too much for your loved one to take in. This is especially true for Alzheimer’s and dementia patients. Rather than overturning their daily routine, try to incorporate special moments into their regular day. This will help make the time more enjoyable and rewarding for your loved one.
• Don’t focus on a single day. Hospice patients experience both good and bad days, so don’t plan all your festivities for a single day or event. Instead, phone ahead and find out how your loved one is doing, then plan your day around the feedback you get.
  On a good day, it’s great to get the kids to come with and put up decorations, to plan a lunch or small outing — it takes a bit more preparation, but it’s worth it. Communicate with staff about visitors and plans that you have so that they can help out.
• Create a special moment. The holidays are bittersweet for families whose loved ones are terminal, but it does make this time even more special in many ways. As sad as it may be that this could be their last holiday with you, it’s a good opportunity to make it truly special. Take lots of photos, build a scrapbook and take the time to slow down and spend quality time together. These are wonderful moments for meaningful traditions, so make the most of them.

Our Hospice in South Jersey is Here to Make the Holidays Special 

At The Shores, a part of the well-known United Methodist Communities non-profit organization in New Jersey, we offer compassionate, professional hospice care in the Jersey Shore area called Bridges. It focuses on creating a nurturing and comforting environment for patients and their loved ones through customized care programs and compassionate support. To find out more about our hospice in Cape May County, please visit our website at https://theshores.umcommunities.org/hospice-care-nj/ or contact us today and organize your visit.

Original content posted on https://umcommunities.org/blog/celebrating-the-festive-season-with-your-loved-one-in-hospice/