LifeCare Offers Families Wide-Ranging Care and Support

Lower Cape Fear LifeCare (LCFL) is the region’s longest-operating nonprofit hospice and the second-largest hospice provider in North Carolina, serving thousands of families yearly. It is revered for its compassionate, patient-centered care and support. The nonprofit is a valuable resource to families in our community navigating complex healthcare diagnoses.

Its core service, hospice care, is based on an interdisciplinary team approach that includes a physician, nurse, nursing aide, social worker, chaplain, and volunteer, working together to provide physical, emotional, and spiritual care and support for people with life-limiting illnesses who have a life expectancy of six months or less. Hospice also provides support and education for their loved ones. It is the only hospice in the region offering patients the continuum of care provided by its inpatient hospice care centers. The cost of care, medication, and supplies is covered by the Medicare Hospice Benefit, as well as Medicaid and private insurance.

LCFL’s library of short videos at LifeCareAnswers.org answers many common questions about hospice care.

In addition to hospice care, LCFL offers many other valuable services and programs to people and families in our community. One such service is palliative care, a specialized medical care for people undergoing treatment for serious illnesses. It provides pain and symptom management and coordination of care with patients’ other physicians. LCFL will soon open North Carolina’s first freestanding palliative care clinic, providing outpatient services for Novant New Hanover Regional Medical Center and other local healthcare providers.

LifeCare Memory Partners is designed for people with a dementia-related illness, their families, and caregivers. It provides resources, education, and respite to help keep the person with dementia at home for as long as possible while improving the quality of life for them and their loved ones. The program’s CareGiver Academy, in collaboration with the Alzheimer’s Association and Cape Fear Area Agency on Aging, offers several educational opportunities monthly.

While LCFL provides grief care to the families it serves for up to 13 months after the death of a loved one, it also offers grief counseling to adults and children in the community who have lost someone special in their lives. Through individual counseling, groups, and in-school and summer grief camps for kids, people can learn healthy ways of coping with their grief and begin to heal.

You can join Lower Cape Fear LifeCare’s mission to provide care and support to local families living with serious and life-limiting illnesses by donating or volunteering. To learn more about its services and programs, visit LifeCare.org, or call 910-796-7900.