Subject
title
Proclamation Declaring November 2025, as National Hospice and Palliative Care Month
end
Department
City Clerk/Director of Council Operations Office
Recommendation
Staff recommends the Mayor and Council read, approve, and present the proclamation to Karen Brubaker Miller, President and CEO, Montgomery Hospice.
Discussion
November is National Hospice and Palliative Care Month, sponsored by the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization.
Hospice care in the United States began in 1974, with the creation of a Medicare benefit in 1982. In 2019, the last year for pre-pandemic reliable data, 1.61 million Medicare beneficiaries living with life-limiting illness and their families received care from the nation's hospice programs in communities across the United States.
The theme for National Hospice and Palliative Care Month November 2025 is:
“We See the Whole You.”
Palliative Care and Hospice Care have similar components; however, each has a different focus.
Palliative Care is the field of medicine that helps give you more good days by providing care for those quality-of-life issues. It includes treating symptoms like pain, nausea, or sleep problems. But it can also include helping you and your loved ones to:
• Understand your illness better
• Talk more openly about your feelings
• Decide what treatment you want or don't want
• Communicate better with your doctors, nurses, and each other
Some doctors and nurses specialize in this field, and many other types of experts may help you, such as social workers, counselors, therapists, and nutrition experts.
Hospice Care: This is a type of palliative care. But it's for people who are near the end of life. Here's how the two kinds of care are different. The goal is to help patients feel better and to keep the patient as comfortable as possible, even though there is no longer a need to seek treatment or try to cure the illness. Hospice care can be done in the place where the patient calls "home." This is often the person's home, but it could also be a place like a nursing home or retirement center. This care can be provided in hospitals, hospice centers, and other facilities, where care is provided by doctors, nurses, and others who specialize in hospice care. If it occurs in the home, a family member is usually the main caregiver; however, the family member typically gets help from care experts who are on-call 24 hours a day.
Source: <https://www.uofmhealth.org/health-library/abq0033>
Palliative Care: The Focus is on improved care, comfort, and quality of life for the patient as well as the family. Palliative care is “whole person” care that relieves symptoms of a disease or disorder, whether or not it can be cured.
Hospice Care: Hospice is a specific type of palliative care for people who are likely to have 6 months or less. This care helps relieve the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual suffering of patients and those who care for them. It promotes the dignity and independence of patients to the greatest extent possible. It helps support patients and their families to find personal fulfillment as they deal with end-of-life challenges.
The four levels of Hospice Care are:
• Hospice Care at Home (supports patients and families who choose hospice care at home, wherever home is)
• Continuous Hospice Care
• Inpatient Hospice Care
• Respite Care
Hospice care and palliative care have benefits for patients and caregivers. The decision to seek hospice care and palliative care can be very stressful for everyone including the patient, loved ones, and other family members, and friends. Working with trained teams of nurses, doctors, social and case workers, clergy, hospice aides and volunteers can offer comfort and compassion to everyone concerned, especially the patient and those close to the patient.
There are networks of professionals and volunteers who are prepared to assist families in managing the process and helping to make potentially major life-altering decisions.
Many hospitals and senior living facilities offer progressive care areas, dedicated wings, specialized facilities, and services devoted to hospice and palliative care needs. Many specialists and trained technicians are needed to help to cope with these life changes.
Many families and patients benefit from counseling, group therapy, and support. There are many innovative ways of helping patients deal with their situations. Music therapy, art therapy, and even animal therapy benefit a patient’s mood, demeanor, well-being, and pain level. Simply holding someone’s hand can go a long way to add to the level of comfort and help to ease discomfort. There is empirical data that show the benefits of many of these techniques. These and other practices can ease the burden, pain, and suffering.
Families will need help managing the emotional toll that illness may bring, as well as dealing with the potential loss of a loved one and the grief that will come. Palliative care helps to lessen the effects of symptoms of illness, along with treatment and potential cures, where hospice can be offered to make patients’ symptoms less severe and help to reduce pain and discomfort during end-of-life situations.
Several locations in and around Montgomery County offer comfort and support to patients and families facing these challenging decisions, which offer compassion, dignity, and respect. Facilities in Montgomery County include Montgomery Hospice, Inc., Rockville (Piccard Drive), Casey House (Montgomery Hospice and Prince George’s Hospice’s inpatient acute-care facility. It is the only all-hospice, acute-care inpatient medical facility in Montgomery County), Carriage Hill of Bethesda (full-service nursing, rehabilitation, and hospice care) and the Jewish Social Services Agency (offers full-service care, including hospice and palliative care).
Palliative care is one of the fastest-growing fields of health care in the United States, as upwards of 90% of hospitals in America have units devoted to palliative care. Hospice care facilities tend to be standalone buildings from hospitals.
Sources:
The source of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Month 2025 proclamation is the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization.
What Are Palliative Care and Hospice Care? | National Institute on Aging (nih.gov)
<https://www.vitas.com/hospice-and-palliative-care-basics/about-hospice-care/the-4-levels-of-hospice-care>
<https://www.hrrv.org/blog/how-hospice-care-became-my-calling/>
<https://www.hrrv.org/blog/coping-with-another-persons-suffering/>
<https://www.nhpco.org/>
Mayor and Council History
The Mayor and Council present this proclamation annually.