Each year, about a million patients and their families cope with the ongoing battle of a life-threatening illness. Each family struggles with the many questions surrounding this difficult time:

What’s the best treatment for me or my loved one?
Where do I find it?
What is too much or too little?
How do I keep myself and my family whole – physically, spiritually, emotionally?

November is National Hospice and Palliative Care Month. When treatment for a cure no longer offers a good life, hospice professionals provide palliative care and more. They are the specialists in end-of-life care, uniquely able to help patients and families maximize living even as they grieve the coming loss, ensure freedom from pain and help recognize gifts and blessings even as the final days approach.

Aultman Hospice and Palliative Care is encouraging health care professionals to educate patients who do have life-limiting illnesses to be prepared about their future health care when curative treatment is no longer a good option. So many family members who experienced hospice with a loved one say the same thing: “I wish I would have had hospice sooner.”

According to the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, 27.8 percent of patients entering a hospice program received hospice care for seven days or less before death, and only 14.1 percent of patients received care for more than 180 days. Health care professionals need to have the conversation about hospice sooner.

The wife of an Aultman Hospice patient, when describing her husband’s care, said it best: “The warmth, the concern – it was more like a personal experience. The care they gave us was just something I never experienced before. They were just like part of my family. I felt loved and cared for and comforted, and it was just a wonderful, wonderful experience by far.”

For those interested in supporting this important work and giving back to the community, Aultman Hospice and Palliative Care has joined forces with Goodwill to open a donation center on W. Tuscarawas Street on the Aultman Hospital campus. For every pound of donated items, Aultman Hospice will receive a set amount to put directly toward the care and comfort of patients and their family members. The center will be staffed by Goodwill employees from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. seven days a week, except holidays.

According to Medicare.gov’s hospice compare, Aultman Hospice and Palliative Care continues to exceed national averages and rates higher than other hospices in the area, and more than 90 percent of families would recommend it. To learn more about Aultman Hospice and Palliative Care, contact the Canton location at 330-479-2378 or the Alliance location at 330-596-7480.