PALLIATIVE CARE

Palliative care is a form of care in which the patient’s physical, psychological, social and spiritual needs are regarded as equally important. Palliative care deals with TOTAL pain.

Physical:

  • Other symptoms
  • Undesirable effects of treatment
  • Insomnia
  • Chronic fatigue

Social:

  • Worry about family and finances
  • Loss of job prestige and income
  • Loss of social position
  • Loss of role in family
  • Feeling of abandonment and isolation

                                             TOTAL PAIN

Psychological:
  • Anger at delays in diagnosis
  • Anger at therapeutic failure
  • Disfigurement
  • Fear of pain and or death
  • Feeling of helplessness

Spiritual:

  • Why has this happened to me?
  • Why does god allow me to suffer like this?
  • What’s the point of it?
  • Is there is any meaning or purpose in life?
  • Can I be forgiven for past wrong

The World Health Organization (WHO) defined PALLIATIVE CARE as


“An approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing the problems associated with a life threatening illness, through the prevention and relief of suffering by means of early identification and impeccable assessment and treatment of pain and other problems, physical, psychosocial and spiritual”.


Palliative care aims

  • To achieve the best possible quality of life for patients and their families.
  • To understand and address patient’s physical, psychological, social and spiritual suffering.
  • To be applicable from early on in the course of the illness.

Palliative care

  • Provides relief from pain and other distressing symptoms.
  • Affirms life and regards dying as normal process.
  • Intends neither to hasten nor postpone death.
  • Integrates the psychological and spiritual aspects of patient care.
  • Provides support to help patients live as actively as possible.
  • Provides support to the family during the illness and bereavement.
  • Uses a multidisciplinary team approach.
  • Enhances quality of life influences the course of illness.
  • Is applicable early in the course of illness alongside therapies that are intended to prolong life (Eg. Chemotherapy , radiotherapy) and diagnostic investigation.