What do you think if many people advocate "hospice care" now?

I am a hospice volunteer. I told others about my situation, some people were curious, some people felt terrible, and some people thought I had the courage to touch it. The "unfortunate" thing. I think this is mainly because we lacked death education in the past.

People are always mysterious when they talk about death. The first time we talk about death may be when we face the people we love. No one taught us what to do, panic, let alone hospice care.

What most family members do is to prolong the life of patients as much as possible, while ignoring the quality of life of patients. It seems that they have done their filial duty by letting him live. If they give up treatment, they are unfilial. My grandfather was there. He died in the intensive care unit, although he begged his children not to put him in the intensive care unit.

Looking at grandpa's dying pain, I asked myself, if I lay there, would I live like this? I don't want to.

The place where I volunteered to go was the hospice ward (also called palliative ward) of the community hospital. The life span of the patients admitted here was less than half a year, and most of them were patients with terminal cancer. Here, everyone's goal is not to cure the disease, but to minimize the pain at the end of life. I asked many patients' families why they chose Laining treatment and nursing ward. They told me that cancer is very, very painful in the end because of painkillers and morphine.

In the hospice ward, this does not mean giving up and not rescuing, and basic treatment is still effective. Chemotherapy is also effective if you want, but you can choose not to do some traumatic rescue. We neither advocate accelerating nor delaying the arrival of death.

What do we do as hospice volunteers? It seems to be a very common thing. Chat with patients, do some touching and massage for patients, fulfill some wishes of patients, and do some theme activities during festivals. If necessary, you can also provide some professional support, such as psychological counseling and legal aid. In addition, our clients are not only patients themselves, but also family members and medical staff.

I used to wonder if this kind of hospice care was meaningful if I went to talk to them every week and got a massage. I didn't know what we were doing was meaningful until an old woman mentioned to other companions that she missed me. We always agree to "see you next week". Maybe this week has passed quickly for us. For them in the ward, maybe they are really counting with their fingers waiting for your arrival.

"We can't let the darkness disappear, but we can be an outstretched hand in the darkness."