Hospice needs helping hands

SOLANA BEACH — Hospice by the Sea is looking for volunteers to spend time with terminally ill patients and their families in North County coastal and inland communities. The training is free and the next session will be from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Aug. 15, at 312 South Cedros Ave. Suite 250, Solana Beach.
Hospice by the Sea offers care, which is usually delivered at home or in a home-like setting to persons in the final phase of terminal illness.. Hospice empowers patients to live pain-free with dignity, while involving families and loved ones in giving care.
A major goal is enhancing an environment where patients and families have satisfactory mental and spiritual preparation for death.
Hospice for dying people, their families, and their caregivers is a special kind of care that:
— Treats the physical and emotional needs of patients, as well as their spiritual needs.
— Takes place in the patient’s home, or in a home-like setting.
— Concentrates on making patients as free of pain and as comfortable as they want to be so they can make the most of the time that remains.
— Considers helping family members an essential part of its mission.
— Believes the quality of life to be as important as the length of life.
Some 78 percent of all hospice patients have cancer. Many of the others have heart disease, lung disease, Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s. Many surviving family members say, “I do not know what I would have done without hospice.” And many credit it with helping to make their final days with their loved ones warm and memorable.
Call (858) 794-0195 or e-mail [email protected] for information.