About 80 percent of hospice care takes place in the home. Hospice is only for people with cancer. Increasingly, hospices are also serving families coping with the end-stages of chronic diseases, such as emphysema, Alzheimer's, cardiovascular, and neuromuscular diseases. Hospice is only for old people. Although the majority of hospice patients are older, hospices serve patients of all ages.
Many hospices offer clinical staff with expertise in pediatric hospice care.
Hospice is only for dying people. As a family-centered concept of care, hospice focuses as much on the grieving family as on the dying patients. Most hospices make their grief services available to the community at large, serving schools, churches, and the workplace. Hospice can help only when a family members are available to provide care. Recognizing that terminally ill people may live alone or with family members unable to provide care, many hospices coordinate community resources to make home care possible.