Goals of care is about now
It means making decisions about an illness that is happening today, so your care reflects your current reality.
Goals of Care
Deciding what matters most
A goals of care conversation helps you and your family choose the care that fits your values, not just your diagnosis. Since 1982, Treasure Coast Hospice has provided compassionate physical, emotional, and spiritual support to patients and families in Martin, St. Lucie, and Okeechobee counties, regardless of ability to pay. If you'd like to talk it through, call us any hour at 772-403-4500.
What a goals of care conversation really is
When you are living with a serious illness, medical care should never be something that just happens to you. A goals of care conversation is a simple, honest talk between you, your family, and your medical team. Its purpose is to match the treatments available to you with what matters most in your life.
That might mean staying at home. It might mean being free of pain, or being alert enough to enjoy visits from grandchildren. There are no wrong answers. Your care team's job is to listen first, then explain which options fit the goals you name.
This is not a one-time decision. As your health changes, your goals may change too, and the conversation can happen again. You stay the author of your own story the whole way through.
Advance care planning is about later
It means writing down what you would want in a future medical emergency that may or may not ever happen.
They work together
An advance care plan is a strong start, and a goals of care conversation builds on it as your situation becomes real.
View & print guidePrintable guide
A practical guide to care and support
Use this brochure to review Treasure Coast Hospice services, levels of care, therapies, equipment, inpatient care, and family support. Keep a copy for conversations with your family and care team.
The three approaches to care
When people talk about goals of care, they are generally weighing three broad pathways. These are general approaches you discuss with your own doctors and medical team, not decisions anyone makes for you. Understanding them helps you get the care you do want, and just as importantly, avoid the care you don't.
01Resuscitative care
The main goal is to prolong life using intensive medical interventions. If the heart or breathing stops, that can include CPR, a breathing machine, and treatment in an intensive care unit.
Covered by your regular health insurance or Medicare, the same way your medical care is covered today.02Medical care
The goal is still to prolong life and treat the illness, with medications, treatments, and hospital care as needed, but without extreme resuscitative measures or a stay in the ICU.
Also covered by your regular health insurance or Medicare, just like the care you receive now.03Comfort care
The focus shifts to quality of life: easing pain and other symptoms and supporting your emotional and spiritual well-being. This is the foundation of hospice and palliative care, and it is not giving up. It is choosing how you want to live each day.
Under the Medicare Hospice Benefit, care related to the terminal illness is covered by Medicare Part A with no deductible. Copays are small: up to $5 for outpatient prescriptions that relieve pain and symptoms, and 5% of the Medicare-approved amount for short-term inpatient respite care.Five questions to start the conversation
You don't need special training to begin, just a little honesty and a quiet moment. Families often worry that talking about these things will make everyone more afraid. In our experience, the opposite is true: open conversations tend to ease fear, not feed it.
What do I understand about my illness and what's ahead?
It's hard to make good decisions with a fuzzy picture. Ask your doctor to explain your condition in plain words, including what to expect in the months ahead. You deserve clear answers, and it is always okay to ask twice.
What are my biggest fears or worries?
Naming a fear out loud often shrinks it. Whether you worry about pain, being a burden, or leaving things unfinished, your care team can only address a fear they know about. There is no worry too small to mention.
What matters most to me right now?
This is the heart of the whole conversation. For some people it's being at home. For others it's staying comfortable, keeping their independence, or being present for a family milestone. Your answer becomes the compass for every care decision that follows.
What do I want my care to look like from here?
Think about the three approaches to care and which one sounds most like you. You don't have to use medical language. Telling your team "I want to be comfortable and at home" gives them everything they need to start.
Am I ready to put my wishes in writing so my family and doctors know them?
Writing your wishes down protects the people you love from having to guess during a crisis. It also means every doctor who cares for you knows your voice, even if you can't speak for yourself in the moment. A simple document like Five Wishes makes this easier than most people expect.
Your care team
A plan built around the whole person
Your goals guide a custom care plan created with an interdisciplinary team of physicians, nurses, nursing assistants, social workers, counselors, chaplains, volunteers, nurse practitioners, consultant pharmacists, and dietitians. Care can be delivered in a private residence, hospital, assisted living community, skilled nursing facility, or a Treasure Coast Hospice inpatient unit when short-term acute symptom management is needed.
How Treasure Coast Hospice supports your goals
Whatever goals you set, our team can shape practical support around them at home, in a facility, or in one of our inpatient units. Available services depend on your individual plan of care and consultation with your physician and the Treasure Coast Hospice medical director.
Life-enhancing therapies
Depending on the care plan, support may include aromatherapy, massage, music, virtual reality, occupational, physical, or speech therapy, IV therapies, tube feeding, ostomy management, and selected palliative treatments.
Explore complementary therapiesMedications, equipment & supplies
The hospice team provides medications, medical equipment, and supplies needed for comfort and care. Equipment may include a hospital bed, oxygen, wheelchair, nebulizer, suction machine, over-the-bed table, or other items in the care plan.
Ask what is availableInpatient symptom management
When acute pain or symptoms need short-term round-the-clock care, Treasure Coast Hospice's home-like inpatient units provide 24/7 nursing, physician visits, medication management, and support for patients and families.
See our inpatient unitsGrief support
Individual and group counseling, youth and family programs, Camp Good Grief, crisis response, workshops, and training support patients, families, and anyone in the community after a loss.
Explore grief supportLittle Treasures pediatric care
Little Treasures supports children with life-limiting illnesses and their families through intensive pain and symptom management plus medical, emotional, social, and spiritual care.
Explore pediatric careVeterans & community support
As a Level 5 We Honor Veterans partner, Treasure Coast Hospice offers veteran recognition, resources, and education. Community education and Foundation support extend end-of-life knowledge and services across the Treasure Coast.
Explore veterans care
Let's talk about what matters to you
You don't have to sort this out alone, and you don't have to wait for business hours. Call us at 772-403-4500, any hour of any day, and a caring member of our team will answer.