Final answer:
Hospice care is designed to provide comfort and dignity to terminally ill patients expected to die within six months, both at hospice facilities and increasingly at home. It has evolved to reflect society's changing attitudes towards death, offering medical, psychological, and spiritual support to patients and their families.
Step-by-step explanation:
The healthcare that is generally for people who will die within six months or less is known as hospice care. It focuses on providing terminally ill patients with comfort and dignity towards the end of their lives. Hospice care includes services by specially trained professionals who deliver medical, psychological, and spiritual support not only to the patient but also to their family. The aim is to ease the transition and ensure a peaceful and comfortable experience, often outside of a hospital setting. Hospice care has become a reflection of our society's evolving attitude towards death and the dignity associated with it.
Hospice care allows many individuals to spend their last days in the comfort of their own homes. This aspect of health care has roots in the work of Cicely Saunders, who established the first modern hospice in England in 1967, fundamentally changing the way we approach end-of-life care. Since the establishment of the first hospice in the United States in 1974 by Florence Wald, hospice care has grown to support over 1.65 million Americans and their families.
Questions and decisions surrounding end-of-life care, including hospice, are shaped by our cultural backgrounds and personal values. With advancements in medical technology prolonging life, society continues to grapple with balancing personal, familial, and social responsibilities in the care of the terminally ill.