Caregiving can be difficult, both physically and mentally. As a caregiver, it is important to look after your own health and wellbeing while caring for your loved one. There are many ways to practice self-care and seek support as you cope with grief.

Caregiving often comes with financial pressures. Many caregivers cannot afford to give up their paycheck or risk losing their job if they take extended time off for caregiving. Several national studies show that the cost of being a caregiver is high because it can involve additional out-of-pocket expenses, lost wages, and unpaid work. These options…

With advance care planning, you can ensure that your end-of-life preferences for medical care are honored, even if you are unable to communicate them yourself. Thinking about your wishes for end-of life care may not be easy, but it is important for you, your loved ones, and the healthcare professionals who care for you. Making…

Volunteers are an integral part of the hospice team, filling roles that range from direct contact with patients to providing clerical and fundraising support for the organization. Hospices that participate with Medicare are required to use volunteers alongside their paid clinical and administrative staff.

Options are available for patients and families who are dissatisfied with the quality of their hospice care. Please note that HFA does not have the authority to monitor or regulate hospice providers and is unable to assist with individual hospice care complaints.

Typically, grief is associated with a person’s death, but it can be caused by other losses, too. People also experience grief due to the death of an animal companion, or non-death loss, such as the loss of a valued relationship, possession, ability, or activity. Grief can also be experienced as a result of impending or mounting loss, also known as “anticipatory grief.”

Like adults, children and adolescents face losses and experience grief. Loved ones die — grandparents, parents, siblings, and friends. The death of a beloved pet is often a child’s first experience with death.  Other losses that do not involve death, such as divorce, family relocation, or a friend moving away, also may generate grief. As…

Loss — especially the death of a loved one — is among life’s greatest stressors. It can affect you in physical, cognitive, emotional, behavioral, social, spiritual, and practical ways.  Uncomfortable and sometimes complex feelings are natural responses to the death of a loved one. Everyone responds differently, but it is common to feel intense sadness,…

Grief does not have a predictable timeline or set of expectations. Nor does it come with a “script” that caring family members and friends can follow to comfort the bereaved. But there are steps you can take to provide compassionate support.