Understanding Palliative Care
September 27, 2023
Palliative care is a type of health care that focuses on improving the quality of life for seniors with major illnesses like cancer, heart failure, and dementia. The goal of palliative care is not to cure the underlying sickness but to ease the pain and other symptoms that come with it. It is often given along with cures to help seniors deal with their symptoms and the emotional and spiritual problems that come with having a serious illness. Personal care at home for seniors supports palliative care and provides extra assistance when needed.
Who Is on the Palliative Care Team?
Palliative care is a team effort that includes doctors, nurses, social workers, pastors, and others who work in the healthcare field. The team works together to help seniors and their families with their physical, mental, and spiritual needs. The goal is to treat the whole person, not just the disease, and to help seniors and their families make choices about their care that are best for them.
What Is the History of Palliative Care?
Palliative care is based on the idea that it should be all about the patient. This means that the care is based on the senior’s needs and wants and that they are involved in every part of their care. Seniors and their families are encouraged to talk about their care goals, values, and preferences, and the palliative care team works with them to make a care plan that respects these wishes.
Palliative care is also important because it is given to seniors with major illnesses from the time they are diagnosed until the end of their lives. Palliative care can be given in hospitals, hospices, and the senior’s own home through home health care.
Some of the specific things that palliative care teams do are the following:
Pain and Symptom Management
Palliative care teams are trained to deal with complicated symptoms like pain, shortness of breath, nausea, and fatigue. They use a range of medicines, therapies, and other treatments to ease these symptoms and make life better.
Emotional and Spiritual Support
Palliative care teams help seniors and their families deal with the emotional and spiritual challenges of a major illness by offering counseling, support groups, and other services. Having personal care at home for added support during this time is key.
Care Coordination
Teams that provide palliative care work with other healthcare workers to make sure that seniors get the best treatments and services.
Palliative care teams help seniors and their families make informed choices about their care, including decisions about the end of life. They can help with advance directives, living wills, and other legal papers that spell out a senior’s care wishes.
In the end, anyone with a major illness should know about palliative care because it offers a variety of services to improve the quality of life and help seniors and their families while the illness is going on. Additionally, having extra support with personal care at home can help seniors remain comfortable and valued.
If you or your loved one is looking for Personal Care at Home or Placement Services in Atherton, CA, please call Familiar Surroundings Home Care.
Santa Clara County: (408) 979-9990
San Mateo County: (650) 353-9777
Santa Cruz County: (831) 480-3990