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Content is anchored to trusted sources where available, but Compass has not yet been clinically reviewed. It provides general information rather than medical advice.

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Care and support systems

Hospice

A service, and often a place, providing specialist care towards the end of life, and frequently much else besides.

What it means

What a hospice is differs a great deal by country. In some it is mainly a building. In others it is a service that comes to you, offering day services, therapies, respite and support for family, sometimes long before the last stage of life. In some countries, including the United States, joining a hospice programme is tied to a prognosis and may mean stopping some treatments. What it means locally is worth establishing.

Why you might hear it

  • It is often the local provider of specialist palliative care.
  • What joining one commits you to is not the same everywhere.

People who may help

Where Compass goes into this

About this explanation

These are plain explanations of words you may come across, not advice about your own situation. Where a word matters to a decision, the question pages go into it properly, and your own team is the place to take it.