If you or anyone else around you has been diagnosed with a life-threatening or long-lasting illness, getting help from palliative care services can make you and the lives of those around you much easier.
But what exactly is palliative care?
Palliative care is special care given to someone with a severe illness, and the care is focused on providing relief from the stress and the signs of the illness. The ultimate goal of a palliative care service is to improve the quality of life for both the patient and the family.
How is care administered?
The administration of palliative care is carried out by a team of highly skilled professional doctors, nurses, or any other specialist. These professionals work in coordination with other professionals to provide an extra layer of support. Palliative care servicesare based on the needs of the patient and not on the development of illness, whether it will improve or worsen with time.
The palliative care service providers work in the alignment of the patient to identify the goals, which are providing relief from symptoms, spiritual comfort, counseling, or any other thing that can improve the quality of life. Besides having a serious illness, such care services may also be administered for people having frequent hospitalizations or emergency visits.
Who can benefit from it?
Palliative care services are available for anyone with a serious illness regardless of age, diagnosis, treatment choice, or prognosis. It is ideally provided to people since the beginning and during their illness. Patients can have both their treatment and palliative care simultaneously. Having palliative care not only improves the quality of life by removing stress associated with the disease but also helps a patient live longer. The survival period depends on the appropriate administration of disease-related treatments and early referrals for symptom identification and stabilization.
Palliative Care Helps You Stay at Home
The main advantage of a palliative care service is that you get all the care and administration from the comfort of your home. There is no need to have frequent trips to emergency rooms or have unwanted hospital stays while having care administered to you. Having added support at home makes a huge difference in the improvement process like an expert pain control system will keep a patient and their family member much comfortable. The palliative care experts that consist of doctors, nurses, or caregivers, spend as much time as needed to understand the situation and how help can be given.
Which Disease Can be treated with Palliative Care?
Initially, palliative care services were developed for terminally ill patients, but over time, it has evolved into a more specialized medical facility that focuses on broader aspects of serious or life-threatening diseases.
Today, patients with diseases like cancer, HIV, lung disease, heart issues, Alzheimer’s, and many other serious illnesses become eligible for palliative care. The primary aim here is to manage the symptoms as the diseases can cause symptoms, as well as their treatments,which can also give rise to certain symptoms like nausea or vomiting. Having palliative care services enable you to provide relief for various symptoms so you can carry on with your life with the ability to complete the treatments.
What does Palliative Care provide?
Palliative care helps your primary physician to ensure the kind of response, and patient-centered care is given when and where needed or to the person at their most vulnerable. Having palliative care services also improve communication between the patient and the care team. Palliative care provides several responses for symptom relief that includes:
- Expert treatment of your symptoms while under a closely monitored activity.
- Discussion about the allocation of time to meet the patient or their treatment choices along with other curative options.
- Coordination among all the health care professionals, whether internal or external.
- Emotional and spiritual support.
Focusing on the improvement of communication, in addition to symptom management, enables the palliative team to explore different goals and aims of the patient. Today, patients with chronic illness can survive for days and can be cured, but having palliative care services is necessary for those who want to remain in control of their lives while under the influence of the disease.
Final Word
A patient can start palliative care anytime during the course of their disease or as soon as they receive a diagnosis report. They do not need to wait for the disease to reach a certain stage before considering palliative care services. The fact is, the earlier a patient undergoes palliative care, the better chances they have of curing the stress, anxiety, and depression associated with the disease. Palliative care teams truly understand the problems and stresses that remain associated with chronic illness, and they try their best to give an acute response to their patients.
