05/29/2026
Please take a moment to read this powerful, personal statement from Dr. Abraham Thomas about the benefits of hospice & palliative care.
He has served as a dedicated member of our board of directors for nearly 10 years and remains an amazing advocate for his patients, the community and for UpliftedCare.
We’re honored to have his knowledge and leadership to help serve our mission of providing expert, compassionate end-of-life care. 💜
From Dr. Abraham Thomas:
When a loved one is living with a terminal illness, families are often forced to make decisions amid exhaustion, fear, and grief. Hospice care was created to meet people in that moment.
Modern medical care saves many lives but also contributes to a culture in which death is often treated as a failure, and comfort at the end of life does not always receive the same attention as cure. Understanding what hospice provides, what it means, and what it does not mean can help us choose care that prioritizes peace, relief, and dignity.
The word hospice is derived from the Latin word hospes, meaning “host” or “hospitality”. Modern hospice is widely associated with Cicely Saunders, an English nurse, and social worker who transformed end-of-life care by insisting that suffering is multidimensional-physical, emotional, social, and spiritual; and that all the dimensions needed to be tended to.
This approach helped shift the goal from “nothing more can be done” to “there is always something we can do” to relieve pain, to support, and to help patients live as well as possible until death.
Hospice care is designed for people who are nearing the end of life; typically, when a clinician believes a person may be in the last six months if the illness follows its usual course, and who are choosing comfort-focused care rather than curative treatment.
Hospice specializes in the relief of pain, shortness of breath, nausea, anxiety, agitation, and other symptoms that can escalate in advanced illness. The focus is not on “doing nothing,” but on doing what matters most: keeping the person comfortable and able to rest, interact, eat and drink as they wish, and take part in meaningful moments when possible.
Hospice is typically delivered by a team that includes nurses, physicians, aides, social workers, chaplains, and trained volunteers. Families are not left guessing what a new symptom means or whether they should go to the emergency room (something that even I, as a clinician, have agonized over with my loved ones). Most hospice programs offer round - the-clock phone support and can dispatch clinicians when urgent needs arise, which can prevent stressful, unwanted hospital trips.
Hospice staff teach caregivers how to give medications safely, what changes to expect, how to provide basic hands-on care, and how to respond when the person is actively dying. Many programs also offer respite options and help families navigate hard conversations and decisions, reducing burnout and isolation.
Hospice places the patient’s preferences and goals at the center based on their spiritual or cultural beliefs, where they want to be cared for, which symptoms matter most, and what “a good day” looks like. This restores a sense of control when everything feels uncertain.
The support does not end at the moment of death. Hospice provides grief counseling, support groups, and resources for months afterward. This is especially valuable for spouses, children, and caregivers who begin processing the loss only once the caregiving role ends.
There has been a lot of press lately about hospice organizations committing insurance fraud and billing for unnecessary services or for services that they did not provide. These “bad eggs,” coupled with our inherent misconceptions about hospice care, can lead to delayed referrals, leaving families with little needed support.
Some believe that calling Hospice means we are “giving up”. Hospice is not a decision to stop caring. It is a decision to change the type of care for the patient. When treatments meant to cure are no longer helping, hospice focuses on comfort, communication, and time together.
Hospice is not “a place you go to die.” Most people receive hospice services wherever they live: at home, in assisted living, in a nursing facility, or an inpatient hospice unit, but the goal remains comfort and support in the setting that best fits the patient’s needs.
Many think that “Hospice makes people die faster.” Hospice neither hastens death nor prolongs it. It allows illness to take its natural course while reducing suffering. Sometimes people associate hospice with a very short survival simply because hospice started very late. Earlier hospice support can mean better symptom control, fewer crises, and more meaningful time together.
Another misconception is that “Hospice is only for cancer or only for the very old.” Hospice supports people with many terminal diagnoses, including heart failure, advanced COPD, dementia, neurological illnesses, and more. What matters is the decision to prioritize comfort-focused care during a life-limiting illness.
Remember, too, that choosing hospice services does not mean you lose control, or that you can’t change your mind. The goal is to give patients and families more control.
Patients can often keep their primary clinician involved, and they can also choose to stop hospice and resume disease-directed treatment if their goals change. Hospice is support, not a trap.
At its heart, hospice treats the end of life as a profound human experience, not just a medical event. As I reflect on my personal struggles in dealing with the terminal illnesses of my family and my patients, I am reminded of a statement by the physician and author Atul Gawande, “Our ultimate goal is not a good death but a good life to the very end.”
The concept of hospice is about living well for as long as possible, because comfort and dignity matter even in life’s final chapter.
(Thank you to Dr. Abraham Thomas for this article based on his personal experience. — Bob)
