Jimmy Carter update: What is hospice care?

ATLANTA – Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter has received hospice care in Plains, Georgia, after a short series of hospital stays.

The Carter Center said in a statement Saturday that Carter, 98, “decided to spend the rest of his time at home with his family and receive hospice care rather than additional medical intervention.”

Hospice is a treatment designed to make patients feel comfortable and reduce pain and suffering in their final days. This service is usually provided at home, but can also be provided in nursing homes, hospitals, and hospice centers. It is reserved for people who have been declared terminally ill by two doctors, with only six months or less to live.

The average time spent in hospice is about three weeks, says Dr. Arif Kamal, patient director at the American Cancer Society.

Care may include medication, but only to relieve symptoms, not to cure any disease.

Patients are usually cared for by family members, with supervision by the hospice doctors, nurses, and social workers. Kamal said much of the focus is on making sure family carers feel supported.

He said the team “deals with everything from physical symptoms to emotional distress, helping to think about logistics related to burial, wills and advanced care planning”.

Under Medicare rules, patients can enroll in hospice if they meet certain criteria depending on their illness. For example, a cancer patient must be unable to perform at least two normal activities of daily living without assistance, such as eating or dressing, along with other challenges that may include: include evidence that the disease has spread and that their health is declining despite treatment.

It’s not clear what made Carter decide to enter hospice care, but over the past few years he’s been treated for metastatic skin cancer and fall injuries.

Modeled after UK programs, the hospice movement began in the United States in the late 1970s during Carter’s presidency.