The Importance of a Multidisciplinary Team in Hospice Care in Orange County
At Beta Hospice, we understand that end-of-life care is very personal, and complex. At the end of life, the patients and their families have many physical, emotional and spiritual needs that should be addressed in a dignified and comfortable manner by a multidisciplinary team. We believe that every member of the team and their contribution play an important role in covering all areas of the patient’s and family needs. Hospice Care in Orange County, San Bernardino and Ventura is more complex than previously thought.
Holistic Care Through Team Collaboration
In a multidisciplinary approach, different types of hospice team members come together to meet the wide-ranging needs of the patient and family. This includes not just the medical needs, but the emotional, psychological and spiritual needs of the dying and their loved ones.
- Medical and Clinical Expertise
At the center of our multidisciplinary team is the clinician or physician, who directs the medical management of the patient by controlling pain and symptoms; adjusting medications (if any); and authorizing and executing critical care plans. The time can be difficult for a patient and their family, but with the physician’s help that patient is able to receive the medical care needed to soothe them at this vulnerable time.
2. Nursing Care
A registered nurse always has been a vital of the model, delivering hands-on care and assessing the patient daily needs. Nurses give medications orally, administer IVs, draw blood, dress wounds, turn or clean the patient, and carry out a wide range of other tasks. In addition to medical care, nurses educate and advice family members about their loved one’s condition and care needs.
- Personal Care and Aide Services
A vital part of the team is constituted by personal carers or aides. They look after the patient’s everyday needs, such as personal hygiene, mobility and other basic activities of daily living. They ensure that the patients feel cared-for with one-to-one attention, thereby improving their comfort and quality of life.
- Volunteers
Volunteers can give emotional support to both the patient and family members, and provide companionship for the patient – giving family members the downtime they need and relieving the burden of the situation. Their role can also help bring a feeling of normalcy, and a human touch, during a difficult time.
- Mental Health Professionals
The emotional and psychological parts of hospice care, including the bereavement process, are best provided when mixed with the experience of a mental health professional, a counsellor or psychologist. This way, mental health practitioners can help patients and families cope with anxiety and depression surrounding the end of life, as well as the concurrent grief. Also, such clinicians can offer strategies to help families manage the emotional stress of end-of-life care to generate greater emotional resilience and mental health.
- Spiritual Counselors
Our spiritual care service also supports patients and families with identifying and addressing spiritual or existential concerns. Spiritual counselling harnesses spirituality and existential exploration on the part of the patient and family. It is comfort and care grounded in each person’s religious or spiritual tradition that best reflects or honor’s each person’s personal beliefs or values. A spiritual counsellor respects and honors the person’s beliefs or journey, and seeks to support them in that regard.
- Social Workers
Social workers offer important assistance to families in working through the logistical and emotional aspects of a hospice experience, including assistance with insurance, financial issues and working with the available community resources, as well as ongoing counselling and support to help patients and family members deal with the day-to-day consequences of the patient’s status on their lives and relationships.
An Approach based on collaboration
Having a multidisciplinary team is an example of collaboration: each member brings a different perspective and expertise, and has an important role to play in the development of catered care plans that aim to address the patient’s needs. Even more, collaborative multidisciplinary team meetings and updates allow for the co-ordination of ongoing care and changes in patient status and condition.
With the utilization of the many different skills and insights from the diverse practitioners on our team, Beta Hospice is committed to providing a holistic approach that maintains a patient’s dignity and eases the pressing burdens placed on their family while delivering the highest possible quality of life. Every aspect of the patient’s experience is carefully and expertly managed.
Contact Beta Hospice Today
There is no way Beta Hospice or any other hospice agency in Los Angeles can be excellent without a multidisciplinary team working together as collaborators. At Beta, we seek to offer patients and their families with humanistic, holistic services to address their physical, medical, emotional and spiritual needs. We rely on a multidisciplinary team to help coordinate care so that all patients can receive the help they need to die in peace regardless of their situation. We have clinicians, nurses, volunteers, social workers and many other types of human beings working together to make sure that countless patients receive the humanistic care so many of them deserve.