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Hospice Massage: What is Our Role at Life’s End?

Published: 04/06/2010 by Ann Catlin, LMT, OTR

Whether you feel called to work in hospice care or find yourself caring for a loved one this question applies to you: What is our role in serving the person who is living in the final stages of life? It’s important to consider a few basics about the process of hospice care and to recognize that the later stages of life are part of a continuum.
Life-limiting illness means the person has been diagnosed with a progressive condition that affects quality of life and death is eminent within a more or less predictable period of time. When a person enters hospice care, he or she agrees that the focus of medical care will be comfort and quality of life—not curative. An individual may enter hospice care at any point along the continuum. Some are referred to hospice services at the time of diagnosis of a life-limiting illness and may receive hospice care for weeks or months. Others don’t seek out hospice care until entering the final stages, referred to as actively dying.
When visiting an inpatient hospice unit affiliated with a hospice in the Chicago area, I asked the nurse what the average length of stay is. She told me that it is three days and that many of their patients are actively dying upon admission. This hospice unit offers massage therapy services to all patients and their families. So again, I ask, “What is our role?” I’d like to offer a frame of reference that has served me well as a foundation from which to act. These are simple ideas that I have gathered along my own path of service.
Our purpose:
To be a healing presence. There comes a point when massage as we know it is no longer called for. Instead we are called upon to bring forth something that comes from deep within—our ability to simply be present. Rather than cling to prescribed techniques we must trust the simplicity of human compassion and our capacity to offer it to another. Our best resources when serving the dying person don’t come from the techniques we’ve studied but from within our own hearts. We become the space-holder, allowing the dying person his/ her own process and experience and sometimes serve as an anchor for family members and other caregivers.

To enhance the quality of life. Doing what is called for in the moment to ease any form discomfort is the best approach to take. One minute you might be offering a gentle foot massage or holding a hand and the next moistening dry lips or helping to turn the person onto his side to make breathing easier. One of my favorite quotes is from Mother Teresa: “Let us touch the dying, the poor, the lonely and the unwanted according to the graces we have received and let us not be ashamed or slow to do the humble work.” Hospice service is about doing the humble work of each moment as it unfolds.
The National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization recognizes massage therapy as a valuable contribution to end-of-life care, stating “Therapeutic massage is becoming a significant modality in end-of-life care because of its effectiveness in relieving anxiety, pain, and discomfort.” Serving those in hospice care can be profoundly rewarding as we contribute to the quality of life at a very personal and sacred time of another’s life. And, just as importantly, we will influence the nature of end-of-life care.