Palliative Care - An Overview
Palliative care is a specialized kind of health care for people living with life-threatening illness, usually in the advanced stages. The foremost goal of palliative care is to achieve the highest quality of life (for the patient and their family) in its end stages. This comfort care is multidisciplinary, should be highly individualized, and ideally incorporates best practices in the following aspects of end-of-life care:
· Pain management: Commonly viewed as the single most important aspect of palliative care, it is also one of the most challenging. The majority of palliative analgesic drugs have sedating effects that can undesirably impact the patient’s lucidity and mental functioning. However, when terminally ill and conscious patients are experiencing intolerable symptoms that are not relieved with expert palliative care, then implementation of palliative sedation, with the intent of inducing unconsciousness, can be considered with the patient’s (or substitute decision maker’s) consent.
· Symptom management: Distressing symptoms other than pain that are aggressively managed include gastrointestinal symptoms, respiratory symptoms, insomnia, confusion and agitation.
· Psychosocial support: An effective palliative care model places paramount importance on the respect of the patient as an individual; one who deserves support, sensitivity, compassion, the preservation of their integrity and dignity, together with consideration of their spiritual and cultural values.
· Caregiver support: Palliative care, if it is to be approached holistically, includes the patient’s support network. Mirroring the patient, friends and family may also be experiencing a loss of control, fear, anger and anxiety, all of which can be exacerbated if they have been, or continue to be, actively involved in a caregiving role.
The patient best defines the quality of their own life and should therefore actively participate in directing the course of their care.
Jennifer Hartman, Guest Blogger
