Palliative Care: The Missing Chapter…

Palliative Care: The Missing Chapter
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PallEx Healthcare Solution Private Limited has recently opened a ‘one of its kind’ private palliative care centres in Aundh, Pune.

For the uninitiated, Palliative care is a specialty which focuses on caring for people (families included) with a life limiting illness like Cancer, COPD, Renal Failure, Alzheimer’s or old-age related illness.

It not only aims to relieve physical symptoms such as pain, nausea, weakness etc, but, also ensures a person’s cultural, emotional, psychological, social and spiritual needs are met. Growing demands on healthcare and ageing demographics, make it necessary to evolve fresh perspectives in Palliative care, while many new additions of elderly care homes are cropping up to keep up with the demand, for example this Hospice Cincinnati.

Chronic conditions normally intensify with age, which may or may not lead to potentially life-threatening diagnosis.

There can come a moment where a typically curative approach no longer helps, and the patient is referred to palliative care, which establishments similar to Kew Gardens offer if you’re interested in learning more about it. This sudden transfer from one service provider to another, with little or no advanced planning causes a great deal of stress and anxiety to both patients and their families.

Palliative care can be provided earlier, from the moment of a potentially life-threatening illness to complementing curative care.

In such a situation it becomes easier for the palliative physician to manage the patient’s symptoms.

It’s a holistic approach to care, where a multidisciplinary team of Doctors, Nurses, Medical Social Workers, Pain specialists and Counsellors work with patients and their families by providing in-patient, out-patient & home-care services, as may be required by the patients.

Ajay, a successful entrepreneur had a multitude of auto-immune disorders including lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. He experienced acute pain and distress. With his physical symptoms worsening, he slipped into severe depression. His family was worried for him. His neighbour, who read about palliative care asked him to approach a Palliative care physician.

The palliative care team took time to understand his needs. Ajay not only needed somebody to manage his pain and symptoms, but also manage his psychological needs so that he could live well with his illness.

The team managed his pain and symptom along with his emotional needs treating him as a whole person. They also offered emotional support to his family as well.

It’s been 8 years with the palliative care team. Ajay still lives with various illnesses, bu,t because of Palliative Care, he can live well with them. He is more involved with his family. He is no longer stressed and even if he is, knows how to handle it better. There are more such Ajays in the community.

We aim to address their issues and respect their personal choices, even when they face terminal illness. Palliative care “A service for life” can help them achieve it.

In the late 1990s, the famous psycho-oncologist Buckman said that there was one missing chapter in Harrison’s Textbook of Internal Medicine…

The missing chapter was, “What do you do when all the treatment advised in all the other chapters fail?

Palliative care is that missing chapter.

For More Information Contact: 020-27298998/27297980 or email simoni.binoy@pallexcare.com

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