Choices Palliative Care is specialized home-based medical care for people living with a serious illness. Known as palliative care, the Choices program is focused on relieving the symptoms and stress of an illness to improve the quality of life for both the patient and the family. Care is provided to children and adults with advanced illness wherever they call home and via telehealth, and can be provided along with curative treatment, such as cancer treatments, dialysis or cardiac/pulmonary rehab.

Provide home-based, consultative support including:

• Help in making healthcare decisions
• Assistance managing difficult symptoms including pain, difficulty breathing, weakness, fatigue, nausea, and anxiety
• Emotional, mental, social, and spiritual assessment and support
• End-of-life care planning including a living will or advance healthcare directive
• Information and assistance connecting you with community resources
• Caregiver support
• Education about your illness

Patients receive access to a dedicated team of physicians, nurse practitioners, registered nurses, social workers, and chaplains who work with their primary care physician or specialist to provide an extra layer of support and individualized care based on patients’ unique needs.

Hospice & Community Care provides medical, emotional and spiritual support for individuals and families who are coping with a life-limiting illness. Hospice care focuses on comfort for individuals of all ages with any serious illness who have weeks or months rather than years to live.

Considered to be the model for quality, compassionate care for people facing a life-limiting illness or injury, hospice care involves a team-oriented approach to expert medical care, pain management, and emotional and spiritual support expressly tailored to the patient’s needs and wishes. Support is provided to the patient’s loved ones as well. At the center of hospice and palliative care is the belief that each of us has the right to die pain-free and with dignity, and that our families will receive the necessary support to allow us to do so.

The Bob Fryer & Family Inpatient Center is located in Mount Joy and is designed to be a home away from home with bright, comfortable 24 private rooms and plenty of space for your family and friends to gather. The Inpatient Center is open 24 hours a day for visitors and features living rooms and fully equipped kitchens so patients and families can spend time together in a pleasant environment.

• The Inpatient Center is available for patients to come and go for short-term treatment of challenging symptoms through our general inpatient level of care.
• Respite care, or breaks for caregivers, is also available. While patients stay at the Inpatient Center short-term,  caregivers can rest, travel or attend appointments.
• Residential care is offered for a limited prognosis, and if a patient is unable to remain in their home or find placement in a skilled care facility.

The Pathways Center for Grief & Loss is located in Mount Joy and is a free resource to our service area region, regardless of whether the patient was in hospice care. The Pathways Center for Grief & Loss specializes in helping people cope with serious illness or loss after death.

Professionally trained and Master’s-level counselors are available to:

• provide support to individuals of all ages.
• educate people about common grief responses.
• facilitate opportunities to interact with others who have had similar experiences.
• teach effective coping skills.
• help individuals realize the choices that they have on their grief journey.

The generous support of the community allows Hospice & Community Care to offer most grief and bereavement programs and services at no cost.