Understanding Hospice Care
Hospice care is specialized medical care for people living with a life-limiting (terminal) illness, when the focus shifts from curing disease to ensuring comfort, dignity, and quality of life. It brings together medical care, symptom relief, and emotional and spiritual support for patients and the people who love them.
At The Connecticut Hospice, hospice care is built around the belief that patients and families are one unit of care. Our role is to ease suffering, manage symptoms, and help families navigate this time with clarity, compassion, and comprehensive support.
Who Is Hospice Care For?
Hospice care is available to people with a progressive, life-limiting illness and a physician-certified prognosis of six months or less, if the illness follows its expected course.
Care may be provided at home, in assisted living or skilled nursing facilities, or in our waterfront inpatient hospice hospital when symptoms become too complex to manage safely elsewhere.
Hospice and Palliative Care: How They Differ
Hospice and palliative care are part of the same medical specialty, but they serve patients at different points in illness.
Palliative care can begin at diagnosis and continue alongside treatment. Hospice care begins when treatment is no longer focused on cure, and the priority becomes comfort and quality of life.
Levels of Hospice Care
Hospice care is provided through different levels, depending on a patient’s needs:
- Routine Hospice Care: Ongoing care at home or in a care facility.
- Continuous Hospice Care: Short-term, intensive care at home during symptom crises.
- Respite Care: Brief inpatient stays to allow caregivers time to rest.
- Inpatient Hospice Care: Hospital-based care for symptoms that cannot be managed elsewhere.
Our team helps determine the right level of care and supports smooth transitions as needs change.
Hospice Care Options
The Connecticut Hospice offers two primary categories of hospice care.
Inpatient Hospice Care
Hospice
Home Care
What Hospice Care Provides
Hospice care brings together an interdisciplinary team to support the whole person—physically, emotionally, socially, and spiritually. Care may include:
- Expert pain and symptom management
- Nursing care and medical oversight
- Emotional and spiritual support
- Social work and counseling
- Expressive arts therapies
- Family support, respite care, and bereavement services
Care plans are individualized and adjusted as needs change, helping patients live as fully and comfortably as possible.
We Honor Veterans
The Connecticut Hospice, a partner of We Honor Veterans (a program of the National Alliance for Care at Home), is committed to providing quality end of life care to our nation’s Veterans and their families.
Resources for Patients & Caregivers
Different Locations.
One Approach to Care.
Whether at home, in skilled care or assisted living facilities, or at The Connecticut Hospice’s Branford hospital, we care for patients and families together—because serious illness affects everyone involved.
Our interdisciplinary team collaborates across care settings to support physical comfort and well-being while addressing emotional, social, and spiritual needs.
Care plans are tailored to each individual and adjusted as circumstances change, helping families feel supported, informed, and never alone throughout their journey.
Licensed, Certified, Accredited Hospital
Our 52-bed waterfront hospital is available to all our home care patients, as well as new patients referred by families or our community partners.
This facility provides 24/7 expert-level symptom management, including infused pain medications and rapid dose adjustments for patients whose symptoms cannot be managed at home.
Licensed, Certified, Accredited Home Care
Our home care services support patients in private homes, assisted living communities, and skilled nursing facilities across all levels of palliative and hospice care.
Care is delivered by interdisciplinary teams focused on comfort, caregiver support, and continuity, allowing patients to remain at home whenever clinically appropriate.
Admissions
Admission to The Connecticut Hospice is a collaborative process guided by each patient’s needs and goals of care.
Our team works closely with patients, families, and referring providers to ensure the right level of support, in the right setting, at the right time.
A Comprehensive Approach
At The Connecticut Hospice, families and caregivers are an essential part of the care experience. That’s why we support patients and the people who love them together.
Care plans are shaped around shared goals, personal needs, and what matters most in daily life. Our interdisciplinary team works across settings and services to ensure care is coordinated, responsive, and attentive to the emotional, social, and spiritual well-being of everyone involved.
We help bring clarity and compassion to serious illness, so patients and loved ones can focus on the moments that matter most.
How Can We Help?
Make a Donation
As a local not-for-profit, The Connecticut Hospice relies on donor support to provide individualized services and therapies not fully covered by Medicare, Medicaid, or private insurance.
Your generosity helps ensure that every patient and family receives the care, comfort, and support they need, regardless of circumstances.