To the editor:

More than 4.5 million Americans agree that when they are sick they would prefer the security and comfort of being cared for in their own homes. November is National Home Care and Hospice Month.

When your mother, father, sister, brother and neighbor are struggling with a disability, dealing with a chronic or terminal illness, or recovering from a recent hospital stay, professional home care and hospice caregivers have the answer. Today, patients can receive everything from pain management to shampoos. Home care and hospice providers work diligently to keep Americans in their homes.

Hospice care is all about life and living it to the fullest clear to the end. Where better can this be done than in the privacy and dignity of one’s own home?

Why do we celebrate? More than just providing excellent care where and when patients need and want it, home care and hospice save the government and commercial health insurers billions of health care dollars each year. There is no more cost-effective provider of health care in our country. Period.

As we prepare for Thanksgiving and recall our many gifts, please remember the home care and hospice professionals of the Douglas County Visiting Nurses Assn. and Hospice Care in Douglas County who make a difference every day for our seniors, disabled and infirm. They make it possible for home care to be where the healing begins.

Jan Jenkins,

executive director,

Douglas County Visiting Nurses Assn.

Hospice Care in Douglas County