Finding the Meaning of Life in Hospice Care

Throughout the world hospice services provide patients not only with physical support, but also with psychological and spiritual support towards the end of that patient's life. A hospice program provides the missing link between the patients and their families, giving them the possibility to "say goodbye to each other". The Hospice Program in Budapest though is quite unique. Besides the usual care, this program provides something additional and very essential to the patients - reasons to enjoy life and the desire to prolong it as long as possible.

From the inception of the program in March 2001, a small mobile hospice team is able to provide services to 200 patients. The significance of their work can be found in the stories of two patients of the program:

When Staff Becomes Family
András, a man in his 80s, has been in the Hospice Program for 3 years. He has no family ever since his only daughter passed away and when he speaks about the staff of the program, he refers to them as his closest relatives. When he became part of the program he was almost fully paralyzed yet now he can move on his own and read books. András fondly recalls a dinner he had when the volunteer visiting him offered to take him out to a restaurant and meet her family! He summarizes his experience with the hospice program with one statement: "I found the meaning of life here!"

Out of the Darkness Comes Light
Ágnes, an elderly Holocaust survivor, is afflicted with a chronic disease that has worsened over the years. She was paralyzed and since her husband is also sick and unable to care for her, she joined the Hospice Program. Ágnes was non-communicative and the staff, fearing that her situation would deteriorate, enrolled her in musical therapy. Today she is communicating openly with the staff and the other patients. The real change is in her attitude towards life and can only be expressed in her own words: "I saw only darkness, suddenly something took me out and the darkness disappeared..."