Hospice by illness
Comfort-focused care looks different depending on the disease. These guides explain what hospice can ease with advanced dementia, heart failure, cancer, COPD, ALS, and kidney disease, and which decisions families usually need to make.
6 guides · Revised October 2026
Guides in this topic
Illness5 min read
Hospice and Advanced Kidney Disease
How dialysis and hospice fit together, and how comfort is managed when dialysis stops or is never started.
Illness5 min read
Hospice and ALS
A disease with a predictable trajectory, a very heavy caregiving load, and decisions that are better made early.
Illness5 min read
Hospice and Advanced COPD
Breathlessness, anxiety, and the repeated hospitalizations that make COPD hard to plan around.
Illness5 min read
Hospice and Advanced Cancer
The shift from treatment to comfort, what pain management really involves, and the fears that keep families from calling too early.
Illness5 min read
Hospice and Advanced Heart Failure
What comfort-focused care looks like when breathlessness and hospitalizations dominate, and how to recognize a turning point.
Illness6 min read
Hospice and Advanced Dementia
How comfort-focused care works when someone can no longer speak for themselves, and what families usually need to know.
Other topics in the library
- Preparing for hospicePaperwork, the home, and the first week.
- Choosing a hospice providerWhat to compare before you sign.
- Talking about hospiceHow to raise it, and what to say.
- Caring at homeExhaustion, respite, and asking for help.
- The final daysWhat happens, and what helps.
- Grief and the weeks afterThe weeks after a death.
Reading helps. Talking helps more.
If something you read here matches what you are seeing at home, call and describe it. A nurse can help you think through whether an evaluation is worth arranging.
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