Palliative Care- When should you opt for it?

To start with, it is important to understand what palliative care exactly is?

Palliative care is specialised care provided for a patient with serious illness to relieve them of the stress and symptoms of the same. The main aim of palliative care is to improve the quality of life for the patient as well as the family.

To treat a serious illness and to care for a patient with such an illness requires time and effort. Your family and doctors may not be able to offer you the necessary care when the disease is severe and life-limiting. In such cases, palliative care proves to be quite helpful to the suffering patient.

This treatment needs specialized doctors and a team of attendants who are responsible for the betterment of the patient’s moral and mental strength. This treatment is a layer of extra protection for the patients who are severely weak.

Improves your quality of life
Palliative care aims at providing relief from pain, depression, anxiety, fatigue, difficulty sleeping, constipation, nausea and loss of appetite. It will also help in dealing with the suffering and agony that one might feel due to the illness which in turn improves your quality of life. Palliative care is required when the patients are suffering from diseases like cancer, CHF or congestive heart failure, kidney problems, Alzheimer’s diseases, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases and there are many others chronic illness like these which need extra care and protection beside regular medical treatment.

When is it required?
Palliative care is for the patients who have been diagnosed with a life-threatening disease which might or might not be cured, and thus the patient has to bear the symptoms and the stress of the disease for life time.
Palliative care helps in bringing down the stress levels, in turn, reducing the symptoms of a severe disease within.

What can be expected from Palliative care?
Besides the primary medical treatment, you can opt for palliative care for the overall improvement of the patient’s life. There are medical, emotional and other practical needs of the patients which need to be addressed in the right manner and it would be prudent to let to let a specialist take care of the same. This will not only help the patient feel better but also promote faster recovery.

Palliative care specialists work closely with patient, their doctor and the family of the patient to provide extra support. At any given point, if you feel that any of your loved ones needs palliative care, you can discuss it with the doctor and go for it. In such difficult situation, it is best to seek help and make the life easier for both the patient and the family.

In case you have a concern or query you can always consult an expert & get answers to your questions!