Hospice Care in Northern Michigan
Address:
218 W. Garfield Ave.
Charlevoix, MI 49720
Phone: (231) 547-6092
Compassionate care for clients and families across Charlevoix and Northern Michigan
AdvisaCare provides compassionate hospice care for individuals and families throughout Charlevoix and Northern Michigan. From our Charlevoix-based hospice team, we provide care focused on comfort, dignity, symptom management, and quality of life for individuals facing a life-limiting illness.
Hospice can be a difficult topic to discuss, and families often contact us when they aren’t sure what the next step should be. Our team is here to answer questions, explain what hospice care includes, and help patients and families understand the options available to them.
Compassionate Hospice Care Close to Home
Hospice is specialized care for individuals with a life-limiting illness who choose to focus on comfort and quality of life rather than treatment intended to cure the terminal condition.
Hospice is generally available when a physician determines that an individual has a life expectancy of six months or less if the illness follows its expected course. Choosing hospice does not mean giving up care. Instead, the focus shifts toward managing pain and symptoms and supporting the physical, emotional, social, and spiritual needs of the patient and family.
Our Northern Michigan hospice team works with patients, families, physicians, facilities, and other healthcare providers to develop an individualized plan of care based on each person’s needs, wishes, and goals.
Hospice Care Wherever You Call Home
Hospice care does not require moving into a hospice facility. AdvisaCare provides hospice services wherever a patient calls home, which may include:
- A private residence
- Assisted living communities
- Adult foster care or group homes
- Skilled nursing facilities
- Other residential care settings
For families throughout Northern Michigan, receiving hospice care in familiar surroundings can allow loved ones to remain close to the people, routines, and community that are important to them.
Our Northern Michigan Hospice Services
Skilled Nursing Care
Hospice nurses make regularly scheduled visits to assess the patient’s condition, manage pain and symptoms, provide medication education, coordinate clinical care, and support patients and caregivers as needs change.
24/7 Hospice Support
Hospice-related nursing support is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week when patients and families have questions, concerns, or urgent needs.
Pain and Symptom Management
Our clinical team works with patients, families, physicians, and the hospice medical director to manage pain and other symptoms associated with the terminal illness, with an ongoing focus on comfort and quality of life.
Personal Care
Hospice aides may assist with bathing, grooming, dressing, hygiene, and other personal care needs to help patients remain comfortable and maintain dignity.
Medical Social Services
Hospice social workers provide emotional support, assist with care planning, connect families with resources, and help patients and loved ones navigate practical concerns that can arise during end-of-life care.
Spiritual Support
Spiritual care is available according to each patient’s individual beliefs, values, and preferences. Support is non-denominational, and our team can also help connect patients and families with their own faith communities when requested.
Medical Equipment and Supplies
When related to the hospice plan of care, our team helps coordinate necessary medical equipment and supplies that may include hospital beds, wheelchairs, oxygen equipment, and other resources needed to support comfort at home.
Bereavement Support
Our care extends to family members and loved ones through grief and bereavement support following a patient’s death.
When May Hospice Be Appropriate?
It may be time to begin a conversation about hospice when a loved one’s health continues to decline or their goals of care begin shifting toward comfort.
Some signs that it may be appropriate to ask about hospice include:
- Frequent hospitalizations or emergency room visits
- Increasing pain, shortness of breath, nausea, or other symptoms
- Increasing weakness or difficulty with everyday activities
- Difficulty recovering after illnesses or medical setbacks
- Significant decreases in appetite or unintended weight loss
- Spending more time sleeping or experiencing decreased alertness
- Curative treatment is no longer effective, recommended, tolerated, or consistent with the patient’s wishes
These signs do not determine hospice eligibility on their own. Our Northern Michigan hospice team can answer questions and help determine whether a hospice evaluation may be appropriate.
You Don’t Have to Wait to Ask About Hospice
Families do not need to have everything figured out before contacting a hospice provider. In fact, learning about hospice earlier can give patients and families more time to understand their options, discuss their wishes, and make informed decisions about care.
Many conversations begin with a simple question: “Is it time to consider hospice?”
Asking that question does not commit someone to hospice care. It simply opens a conversation about what support may be available.
Understanding Hospice Care
There are many misconceptions about what choosing hospice means. Hospice does not mean that medical care stops or that a patient or family is giving up.
Instead, the goals of care change. The hospice team focuses on managing symptoms, maintaining comfort and dignity, and supporting quality of life.
Patients may continue to receive medications and appropriate medical care based on their needs and hospice plan of care. Treatment for conditions unrelated to the terminal hospice diagnosis may also continue when appropriate.
Hospice eligibility and the plan of care are reviewed as a patient’s condition and needs change.
Paying for Hospice Care
Hospice care may be covered by Medicare, Medicaid, and many private insurance plans for individuals who meet eligibility requirements.
Coverage and benefits can vary. Our team can help patients and families understand available hospice benefits, answer questions about coverage, and guide them through the process of beginning care.
Hospice Care Throughout Northern Michigan
From our Charlevoix office, AdvisaCare provides hospice care to patients and families across a broad area of Northern Michigan.
Our service area includes Charlevoix, Gaylord, Grayling, Manistee, Alpena, Sterling, and surrounding Northern Michigan communities.
Our team also works with physicians, hospitals, assisted living communities, skilled nursing facilities, case managers, and other healthcare professionals throughout the region to help patients access hospice care when they need it.
Talk With Our Northern Michigan Hospice Team
If you are considering hospice care for yourself or someone you love, you don’t have to navigate the decision alone. AdvisaCare’s Northern Michigan hospice team can answer your questions, explain what to expect, and help determine whether hospice may be an appropriate next step.
Call AdvisaCare at (231) 547-6092 to learn more about hospice care in Charlevoix and throughout Northern Michigan.
