Kristi Saunders | Support HB704

Respectfully, I am submitting this as a Palliative Hospice doctor who works in a small nonprofit VNA hospice program for more than 12 years ,seeing patients in their homes, nursing facilities, assisted living and Glen Cliff. I have cared for families and patients with dementias of all types as well as those with chronic and end of life illnesses. What I have come to realize over the years is having caregiving is the key for quality of life as we age. We do a great job with treating folks to fix their cancers , diabetes, heart disease pulmonary disease , infections and more, keep everyone alive and at the same time what we lack is care for those who are aging and won't get better and need to be able to stay in their homes with those who love them and can get medical comfort care and support. Hospice is only for those at the very end. Caring for my mom for only one week as she died was easy for me because I was able to see she was dying and I had the resources and help, yet those years before she died, trying to get caregivers, nursing, medical care just for comfort was hard despite the financial resources we had was difficult. Patients don't want to leave their homes and families need others to help. Studies show that caregivers life expectancy goes down greatly after caring for their loved ones due to exhaustion, spiritual distress and isolation. Our patients end up moving to nursing home only because families don't have money to care for them at home or the physical help. After spending down money they may qualify for Medicaid to move to a nursing home, only to get more aggressive treatments that they don't want, are further isolated from their friends and loved ones and unable to get the respect they deserve. I am not saying these facilities are bad, they do what they can ,yet lets face it none of us say we want to spend our end of life or years away from our families sharing a room and move into a nursing home. We agree to do so to not burden our loved ones or society. Lets give families the support they need, other than hospice care which doesn't solve this problem. I have cared for many 90 year olds who are alone caring for each other despite multiple medical problems with out rest. Struggling to go shopping, get to church, take a walk, sleep or shower. Our population of aged peoples is increasing quickly and this problem will only increase. I would actually put in your bill more money for supports of caregiving. I offer anyone to come visit patients with me to see what we caring for these people see in the communities here in New Hampshire. Come see how difficult it is for families. Warmest Regards, Kristi Saunders MS, MD, FACOG, HMDC