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Key Hospice Terminology

(from the State of Utah, Health Facility Licensure,
Hospice Rule - R432-750)

Bereavement - means the period of time, usually occurring within the first year after the loss, during which a person or group of people experiences, responds emotionally to, and adjusts to the loss by death of another person.

Grief - means the response to loss that often occurs in stages of varying length. Stages are differentiated by changes in feeling, thought, and behavior.

Hospice- means a public agency or private organization or subdivision of either of these that is primarily engaged in providing care to terminally ill individuals and their families.

Hospice Care - means the care given to the terminally ill and their families which occurs in a home or in a health facility and which includes medical, palliative, psychosocial, spiritual, bereavement and supportive care and treatment.

Palliative Treatment - means treatment and comfort measures directed toward relief of symptoms, and pain management rather than treatment to cure.

Palliative Care - means the care given to the terminally ill focusing on relief of distressing symptoms.

Spiritual - means patient's and families' beliefs and practices as they relate to the meaning of their life, death, and their connectedness to humanity which may or may not be of a religious nature.

Terminal Illness- means a state of disease characterized by a progressive deterioration with impairment of function which without aggressive intervention, survival is anticipated to be six months or less.