Palliative care is a selective, non-curative approach to alleviating the suffering of a patient’s symptoms. Most patients who receive this type of treatment have chronic or incurable illnesses. The concept of palliative care is widely misunderstood. Many people mistakenly think it refers to hospice, but it means much more.
This program needs to be understood more often, and a recent survey found that 89% of Americans say they know little about palliative care. Public perception is a manageable problem if we help patients access and use this important service and realize its many benefits. In today’s blog, we will talk about palliative care and why it is bad.
What exactly is palliative care?
Palliative care is a medical specialty that provides physical, emotional, and spiritual support to people with serious illnesses or chronic illnesses. Palliative care focuses on patients’ priorities, values, and goals of care and helps them manage their physical symptoms and emotional burden.
Furthermore, we strive to improve the quality of life for patients and their families.
Working with a palliative care team simply requires someone to discontinue or waive recommended treatments or other areas of care if they so choose. It can and should exist as a supplement to the patient’s overall treatment plan.
Dialysis, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy are just some of the curative or life-sustaining treatments available to patients receiving palliative care. Palliative care focuses on alleviating physical and psychological pain to improve quality of life, while recognizing the burden and difficulty of managing chronic and serious illnesses.
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Who receives palliative care?
Palliative care supports patients, including children and young people, with serious, complex, progressive, or life-threatening illnesses. As mentioned above, this includes individuals who are expected to make a full recovery and those with chronic or lifelong illnesses.
Like other specialties, palliative care can and should be referred by individuals. Palliative care services and services focused on quality of life should be available from day one. This association is best made at the time of diagnosis or early in treatment, rather than waiting until the disease worsens or near the end of life.
Despite the challenges of illness and disease, palliative care allows patients and their families to live fulfilling lives. Palliative care helps people stay well while battling chronic illness by treating symptoms, relieving suffering, and helping patients and families better navigate the care experience.
Why is palliative care so important?
The goal of palliative care is to improve quality of life. People with a serious, persistent, or progressive illness or disability have the right to live their best life despite their diagnosis. There are many aspects of living with a health condition that can impact quality of life, including pain, difficulty breathing, sleep, mental health, loss of function, financial hardship, and family issues. . Palliative care focuses on alleviating the physical and emotional pain caused by symptoms, in addition to addressing the social and emotional effects of the illness.
When working with people in their care, palliative care professionals strongly emphasize values, future aspirations, goals of care, and what is important to the patient and family. They encourage and facilitate decision-making, promote patient and family voice throughout treatment, and provide emotional and spiritual support for people coping with the stress, anxiety, and fear of navigating an illness.
Nurses, social workers, chaplains, psychologists, child life specialists, and other professionals work with patients and families to develop a plan that aligns with treatment goals and disease management requirements. Importantly, palliative care teams and clinicians work closely with various medical disciplines throughout a patient’s care.
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What are the benefits of palliative care?
Palliative care treatment should be considered soon after diagnosis for patients at all stages of the disease. It helps patients make decisions, improve quality of life, and reduce symptoms. Well-planned palliative care provides patients with an excellent quality of life.
Applying empathetic care can reduce the physical, emotional, and even neurological problems associated with cancer. It can also reduce the side effects of cancer treatment.
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The patient’s goals and wishes are discussed with health care providers and family members. As a result, family members can better understand the patient’s condition and provide the necessary assistance. It may also be possible to keep track of a patient’s medication schedule.
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Second, palliative care improves quality of life. Organizing patient care can help relieve pain and reduce the intensity of symptoms. This benefit highlights the importance of human body, mind, and spirit.
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Third, patients benefit by having caregivers closely monitor patients’ conditions, which can prevent unnecessary hospital visits.
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Why is palliative care bad?
Palliative care itself is not inherently bad. In fact, it plays an important role in improving the quality of life of people with serious illnesses by providing symptom relief, pain management, psychological support, and increasing overall sense of well-being. I am. However, perceptions of palliative care vary, and some people may misunderstand its purpose or have a negative image of palliative care. An informed and open discussion about palliative care is essential to address any concerns and ensure that palliative care is tailored to the individual’s needs and preferences.
Why palliative care rather than end-of-life care?
Palliative care is often considered end-of-life and is similar to hospice. However, there are many differences between palliative care and hospice or end-of-life care. While symptom control and pain relief are the goals of both services, hospice is a very specific form of palliative care and the term should not be used indiscriminately. However, although hospice care is a form of palliative care, not all palliative care is hospice care.
Patients who are at the end of their lives and have no hope of recovering or surviving their illness need hospice care. When an illness or disease reaches a stage where it can no longer be controlled or cured by treatment, or when the pain and cost of care exceed the value of treatment and the patient or family decides to forgo further intervention. hospice is recommended.
In either of these scenarios, before receiving hospice care, a physician’s certification that the patient has a terminal diagnosis, meaning that the patient is unlikely to survive beyond six months under the normal course of the disease or condition. A book is required.
Unlike hospice, palliative care is available to anyone, even if they are nearing death or have received a fatal diagnosis. Palliative care is provided at any stage of a patient’s illness in combination with curative care or care that prolongs or prolongs life, regardless of the expected outcome (whether the patient is expected to survive or die). can.
It is accurate to say that patients with terminal illnesses or conditions receive palliative treatment, if necessary, before the end of treatment. switch to hospice. It is also true that some people who experience an acute illness recover, heal, or achieve optimal symptomatic treatment and ultimately do not require palliative care treatment.
Many people, including medical professionals, mistakenly believe that palliative care and hospice care are interchangeable. It can be difficult to discuss (or consider) what happens if the disease worsens or if treatment is ineffective. When you combine this fear with frequent misconceptions about what palliative care can offer, it’s understandable why people are reluctant to bring it up.
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Conclusion-
People with serious medical conditions have access to valuable resources through palliative care. The most important gifts this program gives you are time, support, and knowledge. Understanding this program and hospice care can help families decide how to proceed.
When patients are unconscious or unable to make informed decisions, patients or their families ultimately decide whether to utilize palliative care services. If you have questions about palliative care, ask your doctor. They always want to meet you where you are. We can help you find the right amount of support to help you achieve your goals.
