When medication is no longer effective and there is a significant increase in infection, it may be time for individuals suffering from HIV/AIDS to consider palliative care. End of life AIDS symptoms include unabated weight loss, weakness and an inability to care for oneself - making in-home hospice care the best choice.

• AIDS: The Psychosocial Dimensions of Care
• End-of-life issues in AIDS
• Palliative Care of Patients with HIV
• National HIV/AIDS Program: Pain Control and End-of-life Care

As ALS advances towards its final stages, muscle deterioration is accompanied by continuous weight loss, general rigidity, and difficulty breathing. As patients with ALS progress, Hospice care is uniquely suited to tackle these issues in the most sensitive way possible.

• Completing the Continuum of ALS Care
• ALS: End-of-life Issues

In addition to losing the ability to speak, dress or feed oneself, Alzheimer's is accompanied by loss of bowel and bladder functions. These patients and their family members require specialized care to ensure that their final phase of life is as comfortable as possible.

• Alzheimer's Association
• Late Stage and End-of-life Alzheimer's Care
• Practical Geriatrics: End-of-Life Care for Persons With Alzheimer's Disease
• Study Identifies Predictors of Alzheimer's Disease Longevity

Cancer comes in many forms, but as it spreads throughout the body to other organs, weight loss and general weakness follow. As patients become less responsive to treatments, their care must shift to easing what pain can be managed as well as their spiritual and psychological needs.

• American Cancer Society
• Living and Dying Well with Cancer - Promoting Excellence
• End-of-Life Care: Questions and Answers - National Cancer Institute
• End-of-life Care | Cancer.net

Liver and kidney diseases often require frequent hospitalizations because of their unstable nature. Although dialysis or organ transplant may be appropriate, it's often not desired. As weight loss continues along with a chronic fluid build up, you and your loved ones may want hospice to step in and ease some of the burden of care.

• Kidney End-of-life Coalition: Hospice Care

Lung diseases comes with a debilitating shortness of breath and a dependence on oxygen. Frequent hospitalization can be common, and hospice can help supplement these visits through help in a out patient facility or from the comfort of the patient's own home.

• A Guide to End-of-life Care: Lung Disease
• Ethics and decision making in end stage lung disease

A general term for multiple organ failure (such as heart disease with chronic lung disease), these patients suffer from a variety of symptoms simultaneously. As the diseases progress normally, caring for a patient needs to become tailored to the individual - a service the only palliative care can truly perform.

A stroke is often followed by the patient entering a persistent vegetative state. An inability to swallow or otherwise take care of oneself means that these individuals need around-the-clock-care. Alamo Hospice wants you to know that we'll be there whenever you need us.

Shortness of breath and general pain come more frequently in the end-of-life stage of CHF. Nausea and fatigue can make life difficult. Alamo Hospice wants you to know that we can help share the burden of care for our CHF patients and their families.

• Heart Hope
• Medicaring Congestive Heart Failure Book
• American Heart Association