Palliative care is not synonymous with end-of-life care. For many years, palliative care was exclusively for those with cancer and patients with progressive end-stage disorders.
Targets of palliative care:
- It helps patients cope with the concept of death as part of a normal life process, to die with dignity.
- To provide pain relief.
- To neither hasten nor postpone death.
- To provide psychological and spiritual care and support to the patient.
- To help patients live as actively and independently as possible until death.
- To provide comfort and bereavement support to the family.
Who can provide palliative care?
There are two groups of health and social care professionals who can provide palliative care. These are:
- Non-specialists who provide day-to-day care and support of patients and their primary caregivers in their homes and hospitals. They address and understand the patient care needs and also seek advice from/refer to specialist palliative care services when the situations become more challenging.
- Specialist palliative care providers are consultant palliative care physicians/nurses. These specialists may provide the care via day centres, hospital, hospice, or community teams.
What are the components of palliative care?
- Good symptom control is one of the baseline requirements of palliative care.
- Supportive care includes teaching the patient self-help and educating them about how to keep themselves well and as active as possible.
- Involvement of family and caregivers.
- Providing psychological support to patient and family.
- Providing social support to patient and family.
- Providing spiritual support to patient and family.
- Establishing communication.
- Provide support for emotional adjustment.
- Rehabilitation.
- Treating disease symptoms. In cancer patients, it also helps patients cope with side-effects of treatments such as chemotherapy or radiotherapy.
- Addressing sexual problems, infertility or and loss of libido.
- Addressing problems related to loss of work-days, occupation and feelings of worthlessness.
- Dietary guidance and advice to deal with loss of appetite, weight loss, and develop healthy nutrition.
- Advice regarding travelling and entertainment.
- Advice and assistance regarding financial problems.
Palliative care involves care for people with cancer or with long-term serious illnesses such as kidney failure, AIDS, Alzheimer’s disease, etc.
A palliative care team may consist of:
- Palliative care physicians/nurses.
- Private nursing providers.
- Patient groups.
- Family, friends,neighbours, volunteers.
- Counsellors, therapists, psychologists, and psychiatrists.
- Dieticians.
- Occupational and speech therapists.
- Religious and spiritual care workers.
- Complementary therapists such as those providing massage, acupuncture, etc.
- Social workers.
- Benefit advisers.
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