Palliative care is the kind of medical approach given to people with life-limiting diseases. They are at a point in their lives when they are just waiting for their time to be over. It does not mean they are to be left to fend for themselves. Instead, they still need to be given love and care.
The benefits
Cancer patients for instance who are on their final stages still need therapeutic massage every now and then. It won’t necessarily lead to recovery but it will at least make them feel better. Some patients also need counselling. There are times when they simply need someone to listen to them. It helps if a caregiver is there to do the job.
Suffering from a life-limiting disease also means that the patient experiences discomfort and stress all the time. It would be nice to just have someone by their side to ease the pain. The caregiver can provide medicine and other forms of therapeutic care but their presence alone is more than enough. Among the most common illnesses requiring caregivers are kidney failure, congestive heart diseases, Parkinson’s and cancer.
Getting a palliative care team
The team creates a plan based on the goals of the family. Not all patients with life-limiting diseases have the same problems. The team is usually composed of dieticians, therapists, counselors and even chaplains. The person asked to provide palliative care at home will most likely implement these plans with the help of the assigned experts.
Taking care of the patient
People with these illnesses suffer from anxiety and confusion. They also feel depressed knowing that their time may soon be over. Aside from physical pain like difficulty in breathing, diarrhea and nausea, they also suffer from all sorts of stress. They also feel embarrassed that they have to be given much care and attention.
For someone like you who is working full time and with kids, spending time with someone with this problem could be a really huge challenge. You will have a hard time balancing everything. It could even reach a point where you are affected personally. You can’t perform other tasks well since you are focused mainly on providing care for your loved one.
Beginning the process
You should start considering this type of care if curative therapies are no longer working. They can’t do anything to control the illness. The harm caused by some treatment also outweighs the benefits. At this point, forcing different treatments just to achieve full recovery is not only impossible, but inhumane. You just need someone to be there helping your loved one. They might be gone soon but at the very least, they have felt loved until the end. This also gives you time to be there as much as possible without having to take on too many responsibilities on your own, especially with work and other priorities that you can’t just drop. You will always know someone is there to help and to be company. You can have all the care needed and it will help keep the process simple for everyone in the family.
