Introduction
Palliative care is structured to provide relief of distressing symptoms associated with serious illness. Its main aim is to reduce suffering, enhance the quality of life, and provide support during the final stages of life.
Elderly patients who suffer from life-altering diseases such as cancer, dementia, cardiovascular disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are often given palliative care instead of curative treatment. This care aims to improve a patient’s quality of life through pain relief and other measures.
What makes it different from Hospice Care?
Palliative care is appropriate for persons with serious and potentially life-threatening illnesses at any stage of the disease. It has nothing to do with your prognosis or life expectancy.
You can also receive treatment aimed at treating your condition while receiving palliative care to increase your quality of life and comfort.
On the other hand, hospice care is only provided at the end of life when sickness is no longer responding to treatment. At this point, the individual may discontinue therapy and undergo hospice care, commonly known as end-of-life care.
Hospice, like palliative care, focuses on a person’s absolute comfort, including emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being.
Who constitutes the Palliative Care team?
A diverse team of healthcare experts with specialised expertise in this sort of medicine provides palliative care.
- A Doctor
- A neurologist, psychiatrist and respiratory specialist
- Nurses
- Pharmacist
- Nutritionist
- Palliative caregivers
What are the benefits?
Palliative care aims to improve the quality of life of a patient suffering from serious or fatal illnesses and support their relatives. Some of the advantages include:
- Reduction in depression: Early palliative care is proven to be beneficial for patients suffering from life-altering diseases, providing them relief from stress related to their ailments.
- Enhanced quality of life: A 2020 research of patients with Parkinson’s disease and related diseases found that those who received palliative care had a three-point higher quality of life than those who received standard treatment.
- Longer Living: According to the same analysis, mortality and depression may be connected, which could lead to prolonged survival in persons with advanced diseases who receive palliative care.
- Helps in decision making: Palliative care professionals assist people with serious illnesses and their families in making decisions about their care, treatment for their sickness, and emotional coping with the diagnosis.
When to go for Palliative Care?
There is a prevalent misperception that you must wait till your illness is advanced or terminal to receive palliative treatment. Indeed, a lot of studies indicate that palliative care is most beneficial when initiated early, near the time of diagnosis.
Conclusion
Palliative care enhances the quality of life of patients and their loved ones who are enduring physical, emotional, social, or spiritual issues due to a life-threatening illness. Caregivers’ standard of living enhances as well. The global demand for palliative care will continue to rise as the ageing population and the burden of noncommunicable and infectious diseases increases.
If your senior needs palliative care, come to Artha Assisted Living – our professional nurses and caregivers on each level respond to the elderly’s daily and emergency requirements. We strive to reduce tension or suffering and provide the smoothest transition to norm feasible so they can lead and keep living a less stressful life.
