Assembly Resolution No. 649

BY: M. of A. Wallace

MEMORIALIZING Governor Kathy Hochul to proclaim
November 2023, as Hospice and Palliative Care
Awareness Month in the State of New York

WHEREAS, New York State places the highest priority on the health
and well-being of all our citizens; and

WHEREAS, Honoring patient preferences is a critical element in
providing quality end-of-life care; and

WHEREAS, It is the sense of this Legislative Body to memorialize
Governor Kathy Hochul to proclaim November 2023, as Hospice and
Palliative Care Awareness Month in the State of New York, in conjunction
with the observance of National Hospice and Palliative Care Awareness
Month; and

WHEREAS, For more than 40 years, hospice has helped provide comfort
and dignity to millions of people, allowing them to spend their final
months at home, surrounded by the people important to them; and

WHEREAS, The hospice model is built on an interdisciplinary,
team-oriented approach to treatment and support, including expert
medical care, quality symptom control, and comprehensive pain management
as a foundation of care; and

WHEREAS, Beyond providing clinical treatment, hospice attends to the
patient's emotional, spiritual and social needs, and provides family
services like caregiver training, respite care, and bereavement support;
and

WHEREAS, Community-based palliative care, which delivers expertise
to improve quality of life through pain and symptom control and other
support, can be provided at any time during a serious illness, and given
that hospice organizations are some of the best providers of
community-based palliative care; and

WHEREAS, In an increasingly fragmented and broken health care
system, hospice is one of the few sectors that demonstrates how health
care can and should work at its best for the people it serves; and

WHEREAS, 1.61 million Medicare beneficiaries living with
life-limiting illness and their families received care from the nation's
hospice programs in communities throughout the United States in 2019;
and

WHEREAS, Data shows significant changes in patient diagnoses,
calling for innovation in how hospices provide care to those in need;
and

WHEREAS, Hospice and palliative care organizations are advocates and
educators about advance care planning that help individuals make
decisions about the care they want; and

WHEREAS, Although the criteria to be enrolled in hospice and
palliative care differs, both services manage symptoms to help keep your
loved one comfortable; and

WHEREAS, Both share a holistic and integrative approach to the care
by treating the whole person, physically, emotionally, spiritually, and
socially; and both types of care focus on relieving symptoms, pain and
stress, for the patient, their caregivers, and their family; now,
therefore, be it

RESOLVED, That this Legislative Body pause in its deliberations to
memorialize Governor Kathy Hochul to proclaim November 2023, as Hospice
and Palliative Care Awareness Month in the State of New York; and be it
further

RESOLVED, That a copy of this Resolution, suitably engrossed, be
transmitted to The Honorable Kathy Hochul, Governor of the State of New
York.