When a physician hands out a terminal diagnosis, it is often devastating to the patient and family. There are regrets, dashed hopes and dreams. Even then, there is often much grief and sadness. Out of fear of death, some families and patients can deny the imminence of death all the way up till the very end. For many, it really is quite overwhelming to deal with the impending death of a lifelong family member.
Religious faith can help soften the blow, but it is still difficult.
When patients and families turn to hospice, they are quite often desperately seeking answers to very urgent questions. Hospices should be providing counseling and information necessary to assist the patient and family make all the decisions necessary to deal with the terminal illness. Because patients and families most often do not know the laws governing hospice care, unethical hospice administrators could arrange for hospice staff to mislead them about any aspect of hospice, and the patient or family would not know if what they were told was the truth or not. When patients and families find out that they have been deceived by health care professionals, outrage is an understated description of how they feel. If the agency is caught by the police or government inspectors, they blame the staff and deny any official involvement by the agency administrators.