Have you heard of situations where there are self (or relative-managed) homes that would cater for people who need care? In other words, there seems to be very few alternatives to nursing homes. There is also the case that there are people who may need to receive more than home care and may wish to share homes with others, but not within an institutional setting.
Hospice will and does provide care and support to individuals and families wherever they are. So care could be provided in hospitals, nursing homes, assisted living facilities, group homes, homes, and any other residence. There are still a few hospice homes around but there are not very many due to costs.
I think it always depends of the social policies and responses of each country
How true Miguel! I was thinking of care in the United States.
Thank you for your answers. I am particularly interested in what different countries may do to offer more diversity in end of life care. I would like to know about the lessons that we can learn from them., in relation to being as independent as possible during end of life care. In Australia, the only places that offer assisted living or those needing more care are run by fairly large (or large) profit or not-for profit organisations. In order to achieve more independence in a person's life, there could(should?) be more opportunities for the elderly (and/or families) to have more choices in end of life living accommodation. As far as I know, the closest that I have seen in this is the descriptions of June Rabig in the USA who have run a pilot study on those with dementia living in group homes with a maximum number of 10. This method also attempts to develop a sense of community among residents who have dementia. However, these 'group homes' are run by larger organisations. Is there an avenue for the elderly, or their relatives, to have independently-run type of group homes?
Not from personal experience, but UK Hospice at home & links to other end of life models http://www.nahh.org.uk/
Hi Alex,
In the USA, New York State has something called comfort care homes. They are terrific alternative for many people who may not have the resources to die in their own home but prefer a home like setting. The homes are non-profit and rely heavily on volunteers and philanthropic support. Patients are eligible if they have an estimated prognosis of 3 months or less.
Sally
Here is the link and description.
http://www.compassionandsupport.org/index.php/for_patients_families/hospice/homes_for_the_dying
"The Homes for the Dying (Comfort Care Homes) all work on the same model—caring for two people at a time with the help of volunteers and nurses, providing care at no cost to patient or family. A Hospice nursing agency supports the care with nursing, social work, chaplain, and aide visits. Each Home for the Dying acts independently, choosing from the list of referred patients based on their own assessment of who has the greatest need of their help. When a home is interested in offering a bed to someone, the nurse manager of the house will come out to interview the person, bringing pictures of the house to help the person understand what the house might be like. Declining the offer of a bed does not mean that in the future a bed might not be available—-usually when the next bed becomes available; the person would be given another chance to go there."
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