UNDERSTANDING
Palliative
Care
01.2023
What is Palliative Care
Palliate comes from pallium, the Latin word for 'cloak'. To palliate is to cloak, or cover up, the symptoms of an illness without curing it. This meaning grew into the idea of alleviating or reducing suffering.
WHAT IS PALLIATIVE CARE
Palliative care is an approach that improves the quality of life of patients (adults and children) and their families who are facing problems associated with a life-threatening illness. It prevents and relieves suffering through the early identification, correct assessment and treatment of pain and other problems, whether physical, psychosocial or spiritual.
The goal of palliative care is to relieve suffering and provide the best possible quality of life for patients and their families.
Symptoms may include:
• pain
• depression
• shortness of breath
• fatigue
• constipation
• nausea
• loss of appetite
• difficulty sleeping
• anxiety.
The team will help you gain the strength to carry on with daily life. In short, palliative care will help improve your quality of life.
Addressing suffering involves taking care of issues beyond physical symptoms. Palliative care uses a team approach to support patients and their caregivers. This includes addressing practical needs and providing counselling. It offers a support system to help patients live as actively as possible until death.
Palliative Care aims to:
• Provides relief from pain and other distressing symptoms
• Affirms life and regards dying as a normal process;
• Intends neither to hasten or postpone death;
• Integrates the psychological and spiritual aspects of patient care;
• Will enhance quality of life, also positively influence the course of illness;
Palliative care for children is the active total care of the child’s body, mind and spirit, and involves giving support to the family. It begins when illness is diagnosed, and continues regardless of whether or not a child receives treatment directed at the disease.
Health providers must evaluate and alleviate a child’s physical, psychological, and social distress. Effective palliative care requires a broad multidisciplinary approach that includes the family and makes use of available community resources; it can be successfully implemented even if resources are limited.
Here at Hospice White River we offer quality Palliative Care because we understand that everyone is entitled to the best care there is.
That is why our Mission Statement is:
To provide home-based palliative care for all White River residents who have a life-threatening illness, regardless of age, race, creed or economic circumstances. We provide support from the time of diagnosis and through the bereavement period, thereby ensuring quality of life, alleviation of pain and dignity in death.
Palliative care is an approach that improves the quality of life of patients (adults and children) and their families who are facing problems associated with a life-threatening illness. It prevents and relieves suffering through the early identification, correct assessment and treatment of pain and other problems, whether physical, psychosocial or spiritual.
The goal of palliative care is to relieve suffering and provide the best possible quality of life for patients and their families.
Symptoms may include:
• pain
• depression
• shortness of breath
• fatigue
• constipation
• nausea
• loss of appetite
• difficulty sleeping
• anxiety.
The team will help you gain the strength to carry on with daily life. In short, palliative care will help improve your quality of life.
Addressing suffering involves taking care of issues beyond physical symptoms. Palliative care uses a team approach to support patients and their caregivers. This includes addressing practical needs and providing counselling. It offers a support system to help patients live as actively as possible until death.
Palliative Care aims to:
• Provides relief from pain and other distressing symptoms
• Affirms life and regards dying as a normal process;
• Intends neither to hasten or postpone death;
• Integrates the psychological and spiritual aspects of patient care;
• Will enhance quality of life, also positively influence the course of illness;
Palliative care for children is the active total care of the child’s body, mind and spirit, and involves giving support to the family. It begins when illness is diagnosed, and continues regardless of whether or not a child receives treatment directed at the disease.
Health providers must evaluate and alleviate a child’s physical, psychological, and social distress. Effective palliative care requires a broad multidisciplinary approach that includes the family and makes use of available community resources; it can be successfully implemented even if resources are limited.
Here at Hospice White River we offer quality Palliative Care because we understand that everyone is entitled to the best care there is.
That is why our Mission Statement is:
To provide home-based palliative care for all White River residents who have a life-threatening illness, regardless of age, race, creed or economic circumstances. We provide support from the time of diagnosis and through the bereavement period, thereby ensuring quality of life, alleviation of pain and dignity in death.
Disclaimer
While information supplied in this article is contemporary and referenced from a credible subject matter source, Hospice White River accepts no responsibility for viewer misinterpretation or any later research findings which may emerge in the future.
While information supplied in this article is contemporary and referenced from a credible subject matter source, Hospice White River accepts no responsibility for viewer misinterpretation or any later research findings which may emerge in the future.