The work of the hospices centers on dying individuals and their loved ones. They all need attention, care and the truth. The hospices and their organizations aim to meet the needs and rights of the dying, their relatives and friends.

The hospice movement considers the human life from its beginning until death as an indivisible entity. The process of dying is part of life - life before death. The hospices mainly endeavor to provide loving care and palliative treatment, but not life prolonging measures. This life-affirming philosophy of care rejects the idea of euthanasia.

The top priority of the hospice movement is to make it possible for the dying "to pass away at home". If palliative treatment cannot be administered in the patient's home, a semi-residential or institutionalized care can be provided.

The development of the hospice movement in Germany has been promoted by a citizens' action committee that energetically advocates the right of a human being to die in dignity and at the same time offers practical assistance to end-of-life patients, their friends and relatives by making available nursing care and bereavement services.

Volunteers are the heart of the hospice movement: They represent different age groups, a variety of professional backgrounds and careers, but they have all undergone a special training preparing them for their task.

The hospice movement offers its services to all individuals who need its help, regardless all other criteria.

Full-time staff members support the hospice movement, mainly by coordinating the ambulatory services, as well as by working as professional caregivers in the permanent hospices.

Today, a whole range of services is available in Germany, whose common guiding principle is interdisciplinary cooperation:

Volunteers provide care for the dying and their families mainly in their own homes; at the same time, through aggressive public relations work, mostly on a regional level, they strive to further improve the situation of end-of-life patients in our society. It is mainly due to their efforts that "living wills" are now widely accepted in Germany. Together with doctors, professional nursing staff, relatives and friends, chaplains, therapists, and social workers they constitute the "interdisciplinary hospice team".

As of May 2001, 85 small in-patient hospices with 8 - 12 beds per unit have been opened, as a complement to traditional home care services. Here patients, usually in the last stage of their lives, but also in case of temporarily critical situations, are admitted when there is no other possibility for them to find support elsewhere. For terminally ill patients with a restricted life expectancy and a serious need for nursing care, the German Statutory Health Insurance and the Disability Nursing Funds cover a great part of the costs. The patients also contribute towards the cost of their care, the hospice itself providing - in general out of donations - at least 10% of the total expenses.

Recently several hospice services have been created, whose qualified professional caregivers offer specialized palliative care at home. In doing so they usually cooperate with other nursing care services. Counseling on the different palliative treatment options represents a basic precondition for enabling the patient to stay at home, and it is envisaged to make this an integral part of the outpatient services offered by the hospice movement.

The movement centers around local hospice associations, of which there exist almost 1,000 in the Federal Republic of Germany. More often than not they have been created by private initiatives, and not within the structures of the social care system.

In all 16 States of the Federal Republic of Germany, Regional Hospice Working Parties ("Landesarbeitsgemeinschaften Hospiz") have been brought into being. They coordinate the local activities and represent their interests on the regional and the federal level.

The Federal Hospice Association ("BAG Hospiz") is an umbrella organization, regrouping all members of the hospice movement in Germany. This organization acts as a liaison body with the public administration as well as with the Statutory Health Insurance and the Nursing Care Funds.

As a volunteer movement, the hospice initiative endeavors to gain the support of as many people as possible for its philosophy, in order to contribute to a new "culture of dying in dignity". This is why support of euthanasia or its legalization have never been advocated by the movement.

The work of the hospice movement is predominantly funded by gifts and donations. You can support the activities of the hospices by becoming a donor member of your local hospice organization or of "BAG Hospiz".

"BAG Hospiz" also publishes a scientific journal for hospice work.

If you want to support the hospice movement as a donor, please contact bag.hospi@hospiz.net.

For further information contact info@hospiz.net.