Palliative Care, What Is It?

In the old days, life expectancy was very short and people died young from any infection or disease. However, today, thanks to advances in science and medicine, life expectancy has increased dramatically.

It is a fact: we live longer and the pathologies and causes of death have changed. For example, numerous studies affirm that the incidence of cancer grows gradually each year.

In addition, medical care allows us to substantially lengthen the time of death. Many people are diagnosed with a chronic or incurable disease and continue to live with it for years. Therefore, a new discipline is necessary to help these patients maintain their quality of life until that moment arrives. It’s palliative care.

Palliative care is not about helping you die or finding a cure. Its objective is to establish a treatment as complete as possible so that the person can cope in the best way his last stage. The main objectives are:

• Treat the symptoms of the disease and the side effects of treatment.
• Support the patient psychologically.
• Improve their social and family conditions. This includes supporting family members of the sick person.

• Increase emotional, mental and spiritual well-being

Palliative care is also called supportive care and respite care. They can be done anywhere you want, whether at home, in the hospital, or in an outpatient clinic.

Who performs palliative care?

Palliative care is usually performed by specialists in this field. They are people from different branches of knowledge, who work together forming a multidisciplinary team. This team is made up of:

• Specialized doctors who focus on the more physical issues and aspects of the disease.
• Nurses and nutritionists.
• Psychologists and social workers.
• Physiotherapists and masseurs.
• Chaplains, who are priests in charge of a religious service in a non-parochial church, such as a hospital.

All of them are equally necessary since a serious illness affects all areas of the life of a person and their family.

What do the treatments include?

First, palliative care is responsible for alleviating certain physical problems, such as pain. To do this, certain medications are used, such as morphine. But it is important to understand that they are not limited to that. They also help improve difficulties sleeping, breathing, or eating. Physical therapists and occupational therapy professionals are paramount in this regard.

On the other hand, palliative care reduces the feeling of fear and anxiety suffered by both the patient and his family. It is necessary to emphasize that family members tend to fall into depression in these circumstances.

In this case, treatment includes support groups and psychological counseling. In addition, the people in charge of this branch are experts in helping to understand the treatment options and the existing resources for the pathology that is suffered.

Although it seems strange, palliative care includes spiritual matters because beliefs and values ​​allow, in many people, to achieve acceptance and peace in the face of death.

Palliative care is very different from the general concept that it is a branch of medicine that helps people die. They are a team made up of numerous professionals from different fields.

All of them, doctors, nurses, psychologists, etc., are in charge of improving the quality of life of the patient until the final moment arrives.