Bereavement care is what makes hospices unique from other healthcare providers. No other health system recognizes caring for people who are coping with the loss of their loved ones as a vital component in their care provision. Hospice is designed to focus on the family’s grief experience as much as the improvement of the patient’s quality of life. This principle is further strengthened by CMS regulations which require that hospices develop and follow a bereavement program for their patients’ families. Agencies may differ in their program components such as the available human and administrative resources, program length (12- 24 months), tracking and management methodologies, and additional services offered. Despite these differences though, the following are three standard practices which your hospice bereavement program should follow.
- Your bereavement program should start from admission and continue up until a minimum of 12 months after the patient’s death.
You must identify the family’s grief and bereavement needs from the time a patient is admitted and address these needs all throughout the care episode until a minimum of 12 months after a Patient’s death. At the start of care, a bereavement risk assessment must be conducted for the patient’s loved ones to determine factors for complicated grief. The results should then be taken into account when creating the bereavement plan that will serve as a guide for the provision of the bereavement services and interventions to the surviving family members.
2. Your bereavement policies and procedures should clearly define the scope of the services.
Your agency must specify and define who are eligible for bereavement services as well as the services’ nature, frequency, and constraints. Bereavement interventions may include memorial services, funerals, individual and family counseling, support visits, grief support groups, written materials on grief and coping approaches, scheduled mailings, and spiritual counseling. In addition, your hospice must have a systematic evaluation process that can appropriately measure the effectiveness and outcomes of these services.
3. Your bereavement services should be coordinated and provided by qualified and adequately trained hospice staff.
It is important the provision of your bereavement services are carried out by qualified and adequately trained hospice professionals. The staff involved in bereavement services are preferred to have degrees in mental health counseling and clinical social work, to name a few. For volunteers, they should receive training on communication skills, stress management, supportive listening, and grief and loss. Clinical staff must be able to identify high risk survivors. It is also advised that regular supervision of bereavement staff and volunteers is conducted.
These standard practices make up your bereavement program which should be well-documented in your EMR. In this, Hospice Centre, a software solution specifically designed by Data Soft Logic for hospices, can empower your passion for compassion with its robust Bereavement Module which plots bereavement interventions in your agency calendar based on your risk assessment results. Schedule a demo with us and learn more about this feature.
Reference:
Professional Development and Resource Series. Patient and Family/Caregiver-Centered Care (PFC) , 2018.
