Lung Disease & Hospice
How Hospice East Bay helps people living with Lung Disease
Support for Patients
- Managing medications like morphine to relax the breathing muscles and ease shortness of breath.
- Offering anxiety treatments to help calm the panic often caused by breathing difficulties.
- Providing oxygen therapy to ensure comfort and maintain oxygen levels.
- Supplying hospital beds, oxygen, and other tools to help patients stay comfortable at home.
- Offering special support for managing fluid buildup and persistent coughing.
- Managing pain and other symptoms as curative treatments are no longer pursued.
- Helping patients focus on dignity and comfort in their remaining time.
Our Bruns House inpatient facility provides short-term intensive treatment in a homelike setting for management of uncontrolled symptoms.
Support for Families & Caregivers
- Teaching families how to safely give medications, including morphine and anxiety treatments.
- Explaining how morphine helps ease breathing difficulties, addressing concerns about its use.
- Providing tips on adjusting oxygen and helping patients stay comfortable.
- Offering emotional support to help families cope with the challenges of caring for a loved one with advanced lung disease.
- Access to social workers and spiritual care providers for guidance and comfort.
- Hospice staff are available day or night to answer questions or provide help during emergencies.
Support for Veterans
- Hospice East Bay’s Veteran-Centered Care program helps veterans living with lung disease by addressing the unique challenges they may face due to military service, such as navigating the VA healthcare system, and ensuring they have access to programs that provide caregiver support and compensation.
- Lung-related diseases like COPD can sometimes be linked to military service, especially for veterans exposed to chemicals, burn pits, or airborne toxins. Hospice East Bay can assist veterans in identifying service-connected conditions based on their military service.
- Veterans who served from 1990 onward may qualify for VA benefits, as COPD is a presumptive condition for this group.
How to Qualify
Hospice Care helps people living with advanced lung disease when their health is significantly declining. You or your loved one may qualify for hospice care if you experience:
- Struggling to breathe even while resting, despite using treatments like inhalers or nebulizers.
- Needing oxygen therapy to stay comfortable.
- Spending most of your time in bed or sitting due to fatigue or breathing problems.
- Multiple hospital or emergency room visits for lung infections or respiratory failure.
- Unintentional weight loss or muscle weakness.
- A resting heart rate over 100 beats per minute.
- Heart problems caused by lung disease (e.g., pulmonary hypertension or cor pulmonale).
How Palliative Care Can Help
- Emotional and psychosocial support includes counseling to address anxiety, depression, or fear related to the disease.
- Symptom management and relief focuses on reducing pain and other challenging symptoms while enhancing the patient’s overall quality of life.
- Goals-of-care discussions identify what it means for the patient to live well—their goals, values, and treatment preferences—to support informed decision-making by patients and families.
- Care coordination with the appropriate specialists (such as oncologists, neurologists, or primary care providers) to align treatment with the patient’s goals and evolving needs.
- Transition planning for when curative treatments are no longer effective or meeting the patient’s goals and values.
- Future planning and advance directives involve supporting patients in designating healthcare decision-makers and completing medical and legal planning documents.
Hospice East Bay ensures that patients with Lung Disease receive compassionate, tailored care while families feel supported, educated, and prepared for the journey ahead.
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