The Dennis J. Becker American Legion Post 205 has entered into an agreement with Caris Healthcare to provide once-a-month visits by volunteer members to area nursing homes to interact with patients who are also veterans. We have already started such visits to Benton House of Bluffton. The visits provide an opportunity for these aged and infirm veterans to interact with other veterans and trade war and sea stories. Our members have found these visits to be very rewarding.
There are two types of care provided by these facilities:
Palliative care is a resource for anyone living with a serious illness, such as heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, cancer, dementia, Parkinson's disease, and many others. Palliative care can be helpful at any stage of illness and is best provided from the point of diagnosis. In addition to improving quality of life and helping with symptoms, palliative care can help patients understand their choices for medical treatment. The organized services available through palliative care may be helpful to any older person having a lot of general discomfort and disability very late in life. Palliative care can be provided along with curative treatment and does not depend on prognosis.
At some point, it may not be possible to cure a serious illness, or a patient may choose not to undergo certain treatments. Hospice is designed for this situation. The patient beginning hospice care understands that his or her illness is not responding to medical attempts to cure it or to slow the disease's progress. Like palliative care, hospice provides comprehensive comfort care as well as support for the family, but, in hospice, attempts to cure the person's illness are stopped. Hospice is provided for a person with a terminal illness whose doctor believes he or she has 6 months or less to live if the illness runs its natural course.
The post coordinator for this project is Steve Robillard, stevescout@aol.com, 240-271-0450. Give Steve a call if you want to be involved.