Proclamation 5734 --
National Hospice Month, 1987
October 29, 1987
By
the President of the United States of
America
A
Proclamation
The
hospice movement in America is an organized
voluntary effort to enhance health care for dying people and their families.
Hospices, expanding rapidly as a vital component of health care, provide a
compassionate way for terminally ill patients to approach death naturally in a
supportive environment and surrounded by family members. Hospices foster
personal care, comfort, and full living, with attention to physical, emotional,
and spiritual needs, especially those relating to pain and grief. The enactment
in recent years of a permanent Medicare hospice benefit and an optional
Medicaid benefit makes this care a possibility for more Americans.
The
most important focus of hospice care is concern for patients and their
families. This emphasis on the sanctity of human life and the dignity and worth
of every individual is exactly why we set aside a time to salute the
professional staffs of our Nation's approximately 1,700 hospices and the
thousands of volunteers who give freely of themselves in this endeavor.
The
Congress, by House Joint Resolution 234, has designated November 1987 as
``National Hospice Month'' and has authorized and requested the President to
issue a proclamation in observance of this month.
Now,
Therefore, I, Ronald Reagan, President of the United States of
America, do hereby proclaim November 1987 as National
Hospice Month. I urge all government agencies, the health care community,
appropriate private organizations, and the people of the United States to observe the month of
November with appropriate programs and activities to recognize and support hospice
care.
In
Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-ninth day of October,
in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty-seven, and of the Independence of the United States of
America the two hundred and twelfth.
Ronald
Reagan
[Filed
with the Office of the Federal Register, 10:36 a.m., October
30, 1987]
Note: The proclamation
was released by the Office of the Press Secretary on October 30.