Proclamation 5567

By the President of the United States of America A Proclamation

Hospice care is a humanitarian way for terminally ill people to approach the end of their lives in comfort with appropriate, competent, and compassionate care in an environment of personal individuality and dignity.

In a hospice, care is provided by an interdisciplinary team of physicians, nurses, social workers, pharmacists, psychological and spiritual counselors, and other community volunteers trained in the hospice concept of care. Physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of patient and family are treated, with special attention to their pain and grief.

Hospices are rapidly becoming full partners in the Nation's health care system. Medicare provides a hospice benefit, as do many private insurance carriers. But there remains a great need to increase public awareness about the benefits of hospice care.

The Congress, by Senate Joint Resolution 317, has designated the month of November 1986 as "National Hospice Month" and authorized and requested the President to issue a proclamation in observance of this event.

Now, Therefore, I, Ronald Reagan, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim the month of November 1986 as National Hospice Month. I urge all government agencies, the health care community, private organizations, and the people of the United States to observe that month with appropriate forums, programs, and activities designed to encourage national recognition of hospice care.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this seventh day of November, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty-six, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and eleventh.

RONALD REAGAN

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 11:01 a.m., November 10, 1986]