BANGOR – Community Health and Counseling Services is among 3,000 hospice providers around the nation that are dedicated to providing physical, spiritual and emotional support to terminally ill clients, as well as serving as a means of increasing public awareness about choices in end-of-life care that are available in the community.

“All too often people facing terminal illness don’t know where to turn for comfort and support,” said Laura Fortin, CHCS Health Services area manager for southern Penobscot County. “Our goal at CHCS is to let people know about the supportive, compassionate and pain-relieving services that hospice provides.”

Community Health and Counseling Services has provided Medicare-certified hospice services since 1997, and today provides comprehensive health and support services for terminally ill clients and their families in Penobscot, Piscataquis, Hancock and Washington counties. CHCS professionals provide services ranging from high-tech nursing and medical care to basic assistance with the activities of daily living and bereavement services.

Care is structured to keep families together in the least restrictive environment possible. Hospice treats the person, instead of the disease; focuses on the family, instead of the individual; and emphasizes the quality of life, instead of its duration. Hospice care allows terminally ill patients and their families to experience the final stage of life together, in the comfort and security of home or a homelike setting.

A person is eligible for hospice under the Medicare hospice benefit once he or she is certified by a physician as having a terminal illness with a life expectancy of six months or less if the disease runs its normal course. Although 57 percent of the patients who were admitted to hospice agencies in 1998 had conditions related to cancer, noncancer diagnoses represented 43 percent of those admitted, according to the Hospice Association of America. These other diagnoses included heart and lung disease, stroke, AIDS and neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease and Lou Gehrig’s disease.

Hospice services are covered by Medicare, the Medicaid programs of 45 states and the District of Columbia, and most private insurance and managed care plans.

To obtain a free copy of “Information About Hospice: A Consumer’s Guide,” write to the Hospice Association of America, c/o Consumer Guide, 228 Seventh St. SE, Washington, D.C. 20003, and enclose a self-addressed stamped envelope, or access its Web site at www.hospice-america.org.

For more information about medical hospice services at Community Health and Counseling Services, call the agency at (800) 924-0366 or visit the CHCS Web site at www.chcs-me.org.

Diane Nelson is the manager of community relations and communications at Community Health and Counseling Services. CHCS is a private, nonprofit home health and behavioral health agency serving the children, adults and families of northern, eastern and central Maine. For information on CHCS programs, call (800) 924-0366.