Palliative Care
What does one do when given challenging news regarding their health? In cases of terminal illness, Palliative care may be one important answer. The World Health Organization offers this information regarding Palliative care:
Improving the quality of life of patients and families
Palliative care improves the quality of life of patients and families who face life-threatening illness, by providing pain and symptom relief, spiritual and psychosocial support to from diagnosis to the end of life and bereavement. Palliative care:
- 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;
- offers a support system to help patients live as actively as possible until death;
- offers a support system to help the family cope during the patients illness and in their own bereavement;
- uses a team approach to address the needs of patients and their families, including bereavement counselling, if indicated;
- will enhance quality of life, and may also positively influence the course of illness;
- is applicable early in the course of illness, in conjunction with other therapies that are intended to prolong life, such as chemotherapy or radiation therapy, and includes those investigations needed to better understand and manage distressing clinical complications.
Effective approaches to palliative care
In most of the world, the majority of cancer patients are in advanced stages of cancer when first seen by a medical professional. For them, the only realistic treatment option is pain relief and palliative care. Effective approaches to palliative care are available to improve the quality of life for cancer patients. The WHO ladder for cancer pain is a relatively inexpensive yet effective method for relieving cancer pain in about 90% of patients.
Related links
- Global atlas of palliative care at the end of life
- WHO’s cancer pain ladder for adults
- A community approach to palliative care for cancer and HIV/AIDS patients in sub-Saharan Africa
- Cancer Pain Release
- WHO news release on global efforts to relieve chronic pain
- Palliative care: symptom management and end-of-life care
- Related documents on palliative care