Palliative and Hospice CareWhat is Palliative Care?It is hard to live with a serious illness eg. some forms of cancer, advanced heart disease etc. The person may feel lonely, angry, scared, or sad. He / she may feel that the treatment is doing more harm than good. There may be severe pain , ulceration, disfigurement, or breathlessness or other disturbing symptoms. Palliative care can help the patients and their families to cope with all of these things. Palliative care is a kind of care for people who have serious illnesses. It is different from care to cure the illness, called curative treatment. Palliative care focuses on improving the quality of life focusing not just the body, but also on mind and spirit. Sometimes palliative care is combined with curative treatment. The kind of care provided depends on what the patient needs. Palliative care can help reduce pain or treatment side effects. Palliative care may help the patients and their families better understand the illness, talk more openly about their feelings, or decide what treatment they want or do not want. It can also help with communication among your patients, doctors, nurses, and the patient’s families. Palliative care is for a person of any age who has a serious illness irrespective of the diagnosis. For example, somebody may want palliative care while he /she is getting treatment for cancer or heart failure. Palliative care could help them manage symptoms or side effects of treatment so that they have better quality of life. It can be provided at hospitals, at patient’s home or sometimes at hospice. It helps a patient live as comfortable as possible in spite of illness. It empowers the family with knowledge and the courage to take good care of the patient till the end. Hospice careHospice care provides medical services, emotional support, and spiritual resources for people who are in the last stages of a serious illness, such as cancer or end stage heart failure, end stage renal failure etc. In certain situations it is also called as end of life care . Hospice care and Palliative care are provided by interdisciplinary team consisting of Doctors, Nurses, Social workers, and Paramedics. The team is led by doctors who are trained in Pain and Palliative Medicine by World Health Organization accredited training centers. Centre for Palliative and Supportive care (St.Joseph Hospice)This centre is being run jointly by St.Jospeh Hospital and Age Care Foundation, in the premises of St.Joseph (American) Hospital, Maryland, Visakhapatnam. Free medical care is being provided to persons with terminal illness with severe and intractable symptoms. Sometimes patients recover and go home after obtaining sufficient relief to come back and get admitted at a later date. Many patients admitted pass away peacefully and comfortably in the hospice with good relief from symptoms. The facility has six beds and it can be expanded in future. A.C.F provides paid care givers, medical consultations, disposables and pain medications. A.C.F does not charge for any of its services or medicines. At present the services are being led by two doctors who were trained in palliative care at Trivendrum and Calicut. They also happen to be trustees of the foundation and receive no remuneration or any other benefits in lieu of the services rendered. Since its inauguration on August 14th, 2012, more than eighty persons with terminal illness were admitted and provided care and comfort by the hospice.
Dr.N.S.Raju MBBS, MHSc (Diabetology) Please let me know if you want to know more about Age Care Foundation or our work - Geriatric Care & Palliative Care. |