Description

Hospice Guide and Stories is Connie Dello Buono’s comprehensive patient handbook for families navigating hospice and end-of-life care — combining practical caregiving guidance with real stories and life lessons from her years running Motherhealth’s Bay Area home care agency.

Unlike a general overview, this handbook walks through the full hospice journey in order — from understanding what hospice is, through admission and planning, symptom management, daily caregiving, and after-death support.

What’s inside:

• Understanding hospice care: goals of care, hospice vs. palliative care, and coverage/cost basics (including Medicare focus)
• Core hospice services: nursing care, personal care, emotional and spiritual support, caregiver support, and bereavement services
• Hospice levels of care — routine care, continuous home care, general inpatient, and inpatient respite
• Admission, planning, and rights — advance care planning, legal documents, and living wills
• Symptom management and core principles of pain management
• Daily caregiving: personal care, communication, emotional and spiritual support, and caregiver self-care
• Approaching the end of life, including high-specificity signs families often see in the last 72 hours
• Practical safety guidance: fall prevention, bed sores, and recognizing UTIs common near end of life
• Managing agitation safely, including guidance specific to Parkinson’s disease
• After-death practical and bereavement support
• Real stories — including a section on hospice workers as “Angels on Earth” — and a dedicated section on dementia

A thorough, story-driven companion for families facing hospice care — pairs naturally with Post Stroke Patient Handbook for families managing complex caregiving needs.

Publication date: December 26, 2025
Language: English
Print length: 190 pages