Family Education & Caregiver Support
When Hospice Begins, the Whole Family Needs Care
Hands-on training, emotional support, respite care, and a 24/7 licensed nurse on the line — built into your loved one’s care from day one.
- MEDICARE COVERED
- 24/7 NURSE LINE
"Always someone to call."
24/7 Licensed Nurses
The Reality of Home Hospice
Hospice changes the patient's care plan. It also changes the family's life — usually without warning.
Somebody in the household — a spouse, an adult child, occasionally a sibling — becomes the primary caregiver. They start giving medications they've never handled. They watch for symptoms they were never trained to recognize. They sit through nights they didn't know how to prepare for. And they do most of it while grieving someone who hasn't died yet.
This is the part of hospice that decides how the next weeks or months will actually go. Family education and caregiver support are what separate a family that feels equipped to care for their loved one at home from a family that's improvising in the dark.
What We Actually Teach Families
Not a folder of handouts at admission. Hands-on, in the home, paced to what the family is dealing with that week.
Giving Medications Safely
Including the comfort medications that come with hospice, which often look different from what the patient was taking before.
Recognizing Symptoms
Telling the difference between a symptom that's part of the disease and a symptom that needs a call to us.
Safe Transfers & Bed-Bound Care
Repositioning and bed-bound care — including how to do it without hurting your own back.
Skin Care & Prevention
Pressure injury prevention and the small daily habits that prevent the problems no one wants to deal with later.
Feeding & Swallowing Changes
What to try, what to stop trying, and when reduced appetite is part of the process rather than something to fix.
What Actually Happens at the End
The final weeks, days, and hours — said plainly. Fear of the unknown changes when you know what to expect.
“Most of the fear families carry through hospice is fear of the unknown. When the team walks you through what the body actually does as it slows down, the fear doesn’t disappear — but it stops being a fear of the unfamiliar.”
Support for the People Doing the Caring
The medical team isn't just for the patient. It's for the whole household.
The patient has a coordinated medical team. The caregiver usually has nobody focused on them — and they're the person carrying the most weight, on the least sleep, with the fewest people asking how they're doing.
This is the part of hospice families almost always underestimate at admission. They assume the medical team is for the patient. The medical team is for the whole household.
Nurses Watching for Burnout
Often noticing it before the caregiver does.
Social Workers
Helping with work leave, finances, and the family disagreements that come up around care decisions.
Chaplain Availability
Available to family members who want to talk to someone who isn't medical.
Whole-Team Attention
Paying attention to who's eating, sleeping, and holding up — and saying something when the answer is "not really."
Respite Care
When You Need to Breathe
Most primary caregivers don't stop until they break. They tell themselves they'll be fine, they convince themselves it's just one more week, and then somewhere around the third week of three-hour nights, something gives — usually their health, sometimes their patience, sometimes both.
Respite care is built to prevent that. Under the Medicare Hospice Benefit, eligible patients can receive short-term inpatient respite care at a contracted facility — up to five consecutive days — so the primary caregiver gets real, uninterrupted rest.
The patient is fully cared for during that time. The caregiver gets to sleep through a night, eat a meal at the table, and take a shower without listening for a sound from the next room.
Plan ahead. Families often wait until the caregiver is already in crisis to ask about respite. The smarter approach is to plan for it before it’s needed and treat it as a recurring tool — not an emergency exit.
Always Someone to Call
A licensed hospice nurse on the line — not a voicemail.
Families don't get a manual to consult at 2am. They get a phone number — and at St. Marie's, that number reaches a licensed hospice nurse who can already see your loved one's chart.
If you're wondering whether something is worth a call, that's the call. We'd rather hear from a family three times in a quiet week than once at 4am after a hard night they tried to manage alone.
24/7 On-Call Nursing Line
(800) 489-7977Support That Continues After
The work doesn't end when the patient passes.
Under federal hospice regulations, bereavement support continues for the family for up to 13 months. That includes individual support, group options, and steady follow-up outreach from our team — not a single check-in call and a sympathy card.
Most families don't fully understand how much they're going to need this until they're already in it. That's normal. What matters is knowing it's already there, built into the care, with nothing extra to sign up for and no separate billing.
Care for the Whole Family
Considering hospice in Detroit, Southfield, Troy, Warren, or Sterling Heights?
Family education and caregiver support are part of the care from day one — alongside pain and symptom management, spiritual care, and the rest of what our team provides.