Share on LinkedIn

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - A former U.S. president has changed the idea of hospice care after it’s been one year since he’s been living with assistance.

Former president Jimmy Carter’s one year in hospice has cleared misconceptions that people might have about what hospice care really is.

The 39th United States president lives in hospice care in his Georgia home and completed one year of the service on Sunday. The amount of time Carter has spent in hospice care questioned some of the myths that revolve around the topic.

Hospice care is a service for people with illnesses who choose whether or not to continue treatment for their illnesses, according to the National Institute on Aging. Illnesses often seen include cancer, cardiac failure, Alzheimer’s, end-stage dementia and pulmonary patients. The institute states eligible people for hospice care generally live 6 months or less.

The RN Area Vice president of PruittHealth Hospice Vicki McKendrick says she has many stories of people who live longer than expected.

“It’s not what everybody thinks it is. Those of us that have been in hospice for a long time, wish we could change the name. It does help people live longer, and have a better quality of life. You can live a lot longer than what people think,” McKendrick says.

In reality, the goal of hospice is for comfort and care in the homes, assisted living or nursing homes of patients. McKendrick says some patients get better because of the care provided to them by certified nursing assistants, registered nurses, social workers, chaplains, and volunteers who help them through their journey.

A common myth that many people believe is hospice is where people go to die. McKendrick says the biggest misconception is hospice facilities give morphine for patients to die.

“That is absolutely not the case. There’s a lot of studies out there that show that patients actually live longer on hospice care. President Jimmy Carter is a classic example of that,” McKendrick says. “I have never, never had a patient say, ‘we wish we found out about hospice later,’ they always say ‘we wish we found out about hospice earlier’ because it does so much for them.”

Hospice care is more than what it seems like with care and comfort being the priority of service. The care service is covered by most Medicare, Medicaid and insurance providers.