Choosing Hospice Isn't Giving Up — It's Time to Bust the Myths
Hospice is often viewed as a surrender or a last resort for a loved one's final days. In fact, it can be taken up sooner, improving life when time is limited.
As a nurse and now the CEO of a health company that serves older adults, I've spent decades around serious illness, aging and death. I've watched families make extraordinary decisions under impossible circumstances.
I've also seen something that still surprises people: Choosing hospice or palliative care isn't about giving up. Often, it's about focusing on what matters most.
Too many Americans believe there are only two choices at the end of life. You either go to battle by taking on every available treatment, or you surrender. This is one of the most damaging myths in healthcare.
From just $107.88 $24.99 for Kiplinger Personal Finance
Become a smarter, better informed investor. Subscribe from just $107.88 $24.99, plus get up to 4 Special Issues
Sign up for Kiplinger’s Free Newsletters
Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice on investing, taxes, retirement, personal finance and more - straight to your e-mail.
Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice - straight to your e-mail.
There is another clear path. It's choosing peace.
Over the years, I've noticed that people facing the end of life often fall into one of three mindsets.
Some simply shut down. They withdraw from the world, becoming disconnected from the people and life around them.
Others fight relentlessly. Every new procedure, every hospitalization, every intervention becomes another struggle to postpone what they know is coming.
Neither approach is inherently wrong. Every person's journey is deeply personal.
But the people who leave the greatest impression on me are those who arrive somewhere in the middle. They say something like: "I've had a good life. I don't want to die, but I know death is part of life. I want to spend whatever time I have left being myself."
That isn't surrender. It's acceptance, which provides the clarity that many families desperately need.
Hospice and palliative care myths
About 2 million Americans on Medicare opt for hospice and palliative care every year, according to a report from the National Alliance for Care At Home, but the choice remains shrouded in misconception.
One of the biggest myths is that doctors stop caring. The opposite is true. Curative care focuses on defeating disease. Palliative care focuses on relieving suffering.
For people nearing the end of life, hospice shifts the goal from extending every possible day to making every remaining day as meaningful and comfortable as possible.
The question isn't whether medicine can do something, because modern medicine almost always can.
The better question is whether it should.
I've cared for people in their 90s with advanced dementia who undergo major surgery after a broken hip. Technically, the operation is successful. The X-ray looks perfect. But has the person recovered? Or have we simply repaired one body part while losing sight of the whole human being?
Medicine is remarkably good at treating diseases, but it can struggle to treat people.
That distinction matters.
Conversations to have now
The hardest conversations rarely happen between doctors and patients. They happen around kitchen tables. Adult children want one more treatment because they're afraid of losing mom. A spouse can't imagine saying no to another procedure. Old family conflicts resurface. Guilt enters the room.
Suddenly, decisions that should be about the people's wishes become tangled in everyone else's emotions.
I've seen families spend months arguing over what their loved one would have wanted because no one asked while they still could.
That's why these conversations should happen years before anyone needs hospice.
Seniors, you should tell your family what quality of life means to you. Put your wishes in writing. Explain where you draw the line between living longer and living well. Don't assume your children will somehow know. In a crisis, uncertainty almost always leads to conflict.
When families understand and accept a loved one's wishes, something remarkable often happens. The anxiety begins to lift. People stop guessing. They stop wondering if they're making the wrong decision. They can focus on being daughters and sons instead of decision-makers, spouses instead of advocates, grandchildren instead of witnesses.
They can simply love each other.
I also believe we need to change how we talk about hospice itself.
Far too many people arrive there only in the last days of life. By waiting so long, they miss many of the services that make hospice so valuable, such as expert pain management, emotional support, spiritual care if desired, social workers who help families navigate difficult decisions, and bereavement resources that continue after a loved one dies.
Hospice isn't about hastening death. It's improving life when time is limited.
In my experience, families almost never tell me they started hospice too early. Much more often, they tell me they wish they'd accepted the support months sooner.
A good ending
None of this means curative care is the wrong choice. If treatment offers a realistic chance to restore meaningful health or aligns with a person's goals, pursuing it can be exactly the right decision. The goal isn't to replace curative medicine with palliative care — it's to recognize the moment when the purpose of care changes.
Every life reaches that moment differently.
What I hope families remember is this: The measure of a good ending isn't whether we exhausted every possible medical intervention. It's whether we honored the person's wishes, reduced unnecessary suffering and gave them the chance to remain themselves for as long as possible.
In healthcare, we often celebrate fighting.
I think we should also celebrate wisdom.
Sometimes the bravest decision a family can make isn't choosing one more treatment. It's choosing one more meaningful conversation. One more story. One more shared meal. One more peaceful afternoon holding hands instead of sitting in another waiting room.
Choosing hospice isn't choosing death.
Sometimes, it's choosing how to live until the very end.
Related Content
- Why You Need an Advance Directive (And How to Put One in Place)
- These Are the 2 Legal Documents Everyone Should Have, Courtesy of an Estate Planning Attorney
- How to Approach the Caregiving Transition When It’s Time
- Today's Senior Living Communities Are Not Your Grandma's 'Old Folks' Home': An Expert Guide to Shopping for the Right Fit
- Age Magnificently with the Help of a Geriatric Care Manager
