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Department 02 — Hospice

Assist on Call Palliative & Hospice Care, Inc.Hospice & palliative care agency · Pleasant Hill, California

Compassionate care in the place you call home.

Welcome to Assist on Call Hospice Care. When the goal of care becomes comfort, dignity and time well spent, our interdisciplinary team surrounds both the patient and the family with expert clinical support and unhurried human kindness.

See all 6 care programmes Call 925-969-7634

Hospice is not about giving up. It is about changing the goal — from cure to comfort, dignity and quality of life — in the place you call home.

Assist on Call Palliative & Hospice Care
Care for the patient — and for everyone who loves them.

Specialised care programmes

Not sure whether it is time for hospice?

Most families wait longer than they wish they had. If you are weighing the decision, talk to us — there is no obligation, and understanding the options usually brings relief rather than pressure.

Our team works together across medicine, personal care, counselling, spiritual support and volunteering, so the whole household is held rather than just the diagnosis.

Request a consultation Send a referral

Our hospice services

Six programmes, working as one team.

Open any programme to read exactly what it covers. Services related to the terminal diagnosis are coordinated by our interdisciplinary team.

Hospice medical care shifts the goal from curing illness to controlling symptoms. Our physicians and registered nurses manage pain, breathlessness, nausea, anxiety and every other source of distress so the patient can be as comfortable and as present as possible.

Visits are scheduled around the patient’s condition and stepped up as needs change. Medications, dressings and equipment related to the terminal diagnosis are coordinated by the team, and the family always knows who to call.

What this programme includes

  • Physician oversight and regular nurse visits in the home.
  • Expert pain and symptom management.
  • Medication management related to the terminal diagnosis.
  • Ongoing reassessment of the plan of care as needs change.
  • Education for family caregivers on what to expect and how to respond.
Ask about this programme
Hospice nurse checking on a patient resting in bed at home

As illness advances, everyday tasks become exhausting. Our hospice aides provide bathing, grooming, dressing, oral care, repositioning and assistance with feeding — always at the patient’s pace and always with their dignity at the centre.

Consistent aides matter enormously at this stage. Familiar hands and familiar voices reduce anxiety, and because aides are in the home regularly they are often the first to notice a change worth reporting to the nurse.

What this programme includes

  • Bathing, grooming, oral care and dressing.
  • Assistance with toileting and incontinence care.
  • Safe repositioning and skin-integrity care.
  • Assistance with feeding and hydration.
  • Light tidying of the patient’s immediate area.
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Caregiver gently assisting an elderly patient with grooming

Hospice cares for the family as well as the patient. Our medical social workers and counsellors provide a steady, non-judgemental place to process fear, grief, guilt and exhaustion, and practical help with the decisions and paperwork that arrive at the worst possible time.

Support does not end when the patient dies. Bereavement services continue for the family afterwards, with individual counselling, follow-up contact and referral to grief support in the community.

What this programme includes

  • Individual and family counselling.
  • Help with advance care planning and difficult conversations.
  • Assistance with social, financial and practical concerns.
  • Anticipatory grief support before the death.
  • Continuing bereavement follow-up and support for the family afterwards.
  • Referrals to community grief resources and support groups.
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Family members comforting one another at home

Serious illness raises questions that medicine cannot answer. Our spiritual care counsellors are available to patients and families of every faith — and of no faith — to sit with those questions without ever imposing an answer.

Support is shaped entirely by the patient. That might mean prayer, ritual and sacrament, coordination with the family’s own clergy or congregation, or simply an unhurried conversation about meaning, legacy and peace of mind.

What this programme includes

  • Visits from a hospice spiritual care counsellor or chaplain.
  • Coordination with the patient’s own faith community, clergy or spiritual leader.
  • Prayer, ritual and sacrament according to the patient’s tradition.
  • Support with questions of meaning, legacy and reconciliation.
  • Assistance with funeral and memorial planning where wanted.
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Hands folded in quiet reflection beside a candle

Our trained volunteers give patients company and give family caregivers a chance to breathe. Every volunteer is screened, trained and supervised by the hospice team before they ever enter a home.

What they do is guided by what the household needs: reading aloud, playing music, writing letters, recording memories, sitting quietly, or watching over the patient for an hour so a spouse can sleep or run an errand.

What this programme includes

  • Friendly visiting and companionship.
  • Reading aloud, music, letter writing and life-story recording.
  • Respite so family caregivers can rest or leave the house.
  • Help with errands and light practical tasks.
  • Support at the bedside during the final days.
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Hospice volunteer sitting and talking with an elderly patient

Keeping someone comfortable at home usually means bringing some of the hospital home with them. Assist on Call arranges the equipment and supplies related to the terminal diagnosis, delivers and sets them up, and shows the family exactly how to use them.

Supplies are replenished on an ongoing basis so a family never runs short, and equipment is collected again afterwards without the family having to arrange it.

What this programme includes

  • Hospital beds, over-bed tables and pressure-relieving mattresses.
  • Wheelchairs, walkers, commodes and shower aids.
  • Oxygen concentrators and respiratory equipment, with training.
  • Incontinence, wound care and other routine medical supplies.
  • Delivery, set-up, instruction, maintenance and later collection.
Ask about this programme
Hospital bed and mobility equipment arranged in a home

Our core values

What our families can count on.

Compassion

We meet every patient and family with genuine kindness, patience and respect for what they are going through.

Respect

Every person’s culture, faith, wishes and privacy guide the care we give — never the other way around.

Integrity

We are honest about what we can offer, we keep our commitments, and we do the right thing when no one is watching.

Excellence

We hold our clinical work, our responsiveness and our communication to the highest standard, every single visit.

Skilled professionals

The team that comes to your door.

Hospice care is delivered by an interdisciplinary team, each member contributing a different kind of expertise to one shared plan of care.

Hospice Physicians / Medical Director
Registered Nurses & Case Managers
Licensed Vocational Nurses
Certified Home Health Aides
Medical Social Workers
Spiritual Care Counsellors / Chaplains
Bereavement Counsellors
Trained Hospice Volunteers

Let us walk this with you.

To learn more about our hospice and palliative care programmes, or to discuss whether hospice is the right choice right now, contact Assist on Call Palliative & Hospice Care today.

Call 925-969-7634 Set an appointment Send your referrals

Department contact details

Assist on Call Palliative & Hospice Care, Inc.

Phone925-969-7634Available for patients and families
Fax925-969-7636Referrals & physician orders
Emailinfo@aochospice.comGeneral enquiries Office2100 Monument Blvd., Ste. 8bPleasant Hill, CA 94523 · View map & directions