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History of Hospice
With time and the advance
of medicine, birth and death were transplanted to a new and
often strange and intimidating environment: the modern hospital,
where family members were merely guests and control rested
with unknown health professionals.
While acknowledging the many benefits of
modern medicine, a group of clergy, healthcare workers and
other thoughtful people began wondering in the 1970s whether
these advances, by depriving the natural dying process of
its family ties, hadn't also robbed it of its dignity. Out
of their concerns hospice care was born in the United States,
and the natural process of dying was returned to the home.
Hospice has experienced extraordinary growth
since then, with more than 3,000 hospices now serving people
in every state of the union and the District of Columbia.
Bringing death out into the open and making
sickness and loss a time of sharing and remembrance is difficult.
And while the hospice experience may not be for everyone,
those who choose hospice find the specialness of caring for
a loved one and the richness of sharing memories of youth,
trials and joys a rewarding experience never to be forgotten.
Dame Cicely Saunders (founder of the first
modern hospice, in London in 1968) summed up the hospice philosophy
best when she told her patients:
"You matter to the last moment
of your life, and we will do all we can, not only to help
you die peacefully, but to live until you die."
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