No — electing hospice means her care team has shifted focus from curative treatment to comfort and quality of life, typically because a physician has certified a life expectancy of six months or less if the illness runs its normal course, but she can still receive symptom management, emotional support, and can revoke hospice at any time if her situation or family's wishes change. Hospice in the Johnston County area is typically provided by a Medicare-certified agency coordinating with her primary physician, delivering visits at home rather than requiring a move to a facility. If you're unsure whether hospice or palliative care (which can be paired with ongoing treatment) is the better fit, ask her physician to walk through both options before committing.
How families here handle this
Families in Clayton and across Johnston County sometimes delay a hospice conversation because they equate it with giving up, when in fact it's a formal Medicare benefit that shifts the goal of care toward comfort once curative treatment is no longer working or wanted, and it's fully reversible if circumstances change. The eligibility standard — a physician's certification of a likely six-month-or-less prognosis if the disease follows its typical course — is a clinical judgment, not a guarantee, and plenty of hospice patients live longer than expected, at which point recertification simply continues the benefit. Because hospice is delivered wherever the patient lives, including a private home in Clayton, families don't need to relocate a parent to access it, and the interdisciplinary team (nurse, aide, chaplain, social worker) typically visits on a scheduled basis rather than providing round-the-clock in-home staffing.
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