During November, the National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC) will honor the home care and hospice community, including the millions of nurses, home care aides, therapists, and social workers who make a remarkable difference for the patients and families they serve. These heroic caregivers play a central role in our health care system and in homes across the nation. To recognize their efforts, NAHC calls upon all Americans to commemorate the power of caring by celebrating November as Home Care & Hospice Month.

NAHC honors this year’s National Home Care & Hospice Month with the following theme: Home Care and Hospice Delivers Freedom.

In the coming weeks NAHC will release new studies that show the increasing role of home care and hospice in health care. Whether measured in dollars spent or miles driven, the value of home care and hospice is vast and astonishing.

Home Care Aide Week takes place this year on November 8-14. For over 15 years, NAHC has used the second full week in November to highlight the many aides whose contributions are second to none as they bring personal warmth to the daily work of giving personal care. They play an invaluable role for their patients as caregivers, companions, and friends.

November is the perfect time to connect with your elected officials. Scheduling a meeting with your elected officials is one of the best ways to be a home health advocate, while also building positive relationships with your lawmakers. Face-to-face meetings give you the opportunity to ask lawmakers to support home care and hospice in-person, and from the perspective of the community that they represent. It is particularly important that we communicate NAHC’s priority issues.

“It is highly appropriate in November that we celebrate the nurses, therapists, aides, and other providers who choose to use their lives to serve our country’s aged, disabled, and dying,” said NAHC President Val J. Halamandaris. “No work is nobler, and no group is more deserving of our respect and admiration. Their goal is helping society’s weakest members live the fullest lives they can. By marrying high tech with high touch, home care professionals and volunteers allow patients to get care at home where they can be with the ones they love.”

This article was originally posted on The National Association of Home Care and Hospice Website. See the original here.