What Is Palliative Care?
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Palliative care is a kind of caregiving intended to improve someone’s quality of life, whether they are elderly or ill. It also benefits their families’ lives and alleviates some of their stress.
Do you believe you or an elderly or sick relative could benefit from this kind of care and have questions about it? What is palliative care to begin with? In this article, we’ll discuss the basics of palliative and end-of-life care, who receives it, and who provides it to help you understand it more in-depth.
What Is Palliative Care?
First, what does palliative care mean? As mentioned previously, palliative care entails managing an individual’s symptoms of illness or ageing to boost their quality of life. It doesn’t attempt to postpone death or hasten it, only to make patients more comfortable and help them live their lives as independently as possible.
Most people who receive palliative care are sick or dying. However, their illness does not have to be advanced; someone can receive care as soon as they have a diagnosis. Patients may live with conditions like heart disease, cancer, dementia, Parkinson’s, and more.
Palliative care also doesn’t necessarily address the source or cause of an illness. A cancer patient may undergo chemotherapy and radiation treatments to reduce a tumor’s size, but palliative care focuses on reducing pain with medication, dietary changes, relaxation, and mental health support. They often accompany one another, but a patient reaching the end of their life may decide against treatments they don’t want and opt only for care that alleviates their symptoms.
Who Provides Palliative Care?
It takes a team to provide palliative care. Some team members will be medical specialists like doctors and nurses who can work with a patient, their family, and other doctors to ensure they have well-rounded care (such as physical, practical, and social) and emotional support.
Other team members could include social workers and dieticians who can help tend to a patient’s needs in different ways, such as through counseling or identifying foods that exacerbate or reduce pain. Religious representatives may also be involved.
Palliative Care vs. Hospice
What is the difference when it comes to hospice versus palliative care? They are similar because they both entail treating patients’ symptoms and making them more comfortable. However, the most significant difference is that hospice care is usually reserved for terminally ill people who only have an estimate of six months or less to live. Patients may receive palliative care at any stage of their illness, including the very beginning, but hospice is for individuals needing end-of-life care.
The 5 Stages of Palliative Care
There are generally five stages of palliative care, which are as follows:
Stage One: A patient, their family, and healthcare professionals devise a plan for the best care as their illness progresses. This phase highlights one of the key differences between hospice versus palliative because full-time care is not necessary yet.
Stage Two: The patient’s symptoms advance, so they may require more intense medical treatment alongside emotional and spiritual guidance.
Stage Three: Palliative care team members help the patient maintain as much independence as possible. Home health assistants or a home concierge may enter at this stage.
Stage Four: The patient likely needs to be in bed most, if not all, of the time. Their family and team of medical professionals will arrange for them to stay in a hospital, hospice or coordinate more hands-on home care.
Stage Five: The patient’s family uses a bereavement plan after their death.
Palliative care plans can be in place as soon as the patient is diagnosed or only once they require end-of-life care. These stages aren’t definitive, but they can help you and your team prepare whatever is necessary.
Different Kinds of Palliative Care
There are different kinds of palliative care. The type most people are familiar with is physical, which entails medical treatment for pain, fatigue, and other symptoms of the patient’s condition. Other kinds include:
Mental/emotional;
Spiritual;
And financial.
Mental and emotional care may look like a counselor or therapist helping the patient deal with their emotions and come to terms with the fact that death is an inevitable part of life. Spiritual guidance can help patients wrestle with questions about why they are sick or what happens next. Medical treatments and in-home care can be expensive, so a social worker or financial advisor can help patients and their families understand costs, insurance, and other monetary matters.
How Does Palliative Care Benefit Caregivers?
Many people who provide care for their elderly parents or relatives are familiar with the concept of caregiver burnout. They love their families, but it takes a lot of energy from one person to tend to another’s needs when they cannot do basic tasks for themselves or are in an intense amount of pain. Palliative care eases caregivers’ workload. They have their own lives to live and can’t be present all the time, so a team of professionals allows caregivers to have time for themselves and provides them access to essential expertise. Plus, caregivers may not know what to do during an emergency, but palliative caretakers will.
Palliative care can take many shapes and forms. Your plan, or your relative’s plan, should include whatever is beneficial for reaching your goals and providing the kind of care desired