On World Hospice and Palliative Care Day

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On World Hospice and Palliative Care Day

Oct 12th, 2008 | By Dr. Avnish Jolly | Category: Health

Dr. Avnish Jolly, 12th October, 2008 : Dying people have rights to

live their life peacefully till the last breath. Hospice and

palliative care is dedicated to provide medical treatment that

concentrates on reducing the severity of disease among people

suffering with life threatening illness.

The principle of palliative care is to alleviate pain, reduce

suffering and provide psychological/ emotional help and to provide a

network of support for their parents' family and friends to improve

the quality of life of the patient and his/her family. The origin of

palliative care can be traced back to the hospice movement even during

Mahabharata when Bhisham Pitamaha was at arrows bed at that time the

dialogue between Lord Krishna and Bhisham Pitamaha advocates the

rights of dying person, even when Rawan was dying at that time Lord

Ram went to him.

Many people travel from one place to another and fall

sick whilst in transit. Hospices are established by the organisations

that were designed to help many of the people who fall ill between

destinations and as such did not have the care of their families. They

provide a range of services like pain control, symptom relief, skilled

nursing care, counselling, complementary therapies, spiritual care,

physiotherapy, art, music and bereavement support.

Many organisations at global level have signed a joint declaration and

statement of commitment to recognise the hospice and palliative care

as a human right and made 11 October an World Hospice and Palliative

Care Day. This declaration will be used to promote and advocate

hospice and palliative care as a human right on 11 October and beyond.

As the population is ageing, more people are finding themselves caught

in dual responsibilities of life. That means they have to take care of

their ageing parents as well as their own young children. Therefore,

hospice care centres have come up to provide solutions to such issues

of a family. As time passes, older people may become more

incapacitated and require additional services. Here comes the need of

some specialised health care centres, which are capable of providing

not only daily care but also a specialised therapy programme to deal

with the pain and stress of illnesses at that time.

The aim of hospice and palliative care day is to improve the quality

of life of the patients suffering from life threatening illnesses like

Cancer, HIV/AIDS, etc. by giving them therapies and psychological

support.

The health care providers help in dealing with distressing

symptoms and pain, affirm life and regards death as a natural process

of the lifecycle. They also offer a support system to help the family

cope during the patients' illness and their own bereavement; and use a

team approach to deal with the stress of the patient's family and

friends. This process is clear in its goals and comes in place from

the moment a person is diagnosed with the illness and supports them

through the holistic treatment and care to the ultimate outcome. They

focus on the physical, mental, spiritual well being of the patient and

his relatives.

Hospice care organisations conduct surveys, studies and research to

find out inovative ways to help patients. Research is being done on

different subjects like health services, clinical support and social

interaction for symptom relief, new ways of treatment and technology,

bereavement and loss, needs of families, friends and care providers,

improving services, evaluating costs and efficiency of therapies etc

with community involvement.

• Health services – It involves issues concerned with identifying

and assessing the needs of individuals and groups in society and how

services are organised and delivered. It often incorporates health

economic evaluations and population level epidemiological analyses.

• Clinical support – It includes the issues concerned with health

care professionals such as doctors, nurses, and therapists. It is

usually concerned with determining the efficacy of new treatment or

ways to deliver care to patients.

• Social interaction – It involve studies to understand the

experiences of illnesses from the perspective of patients and their

care providers. It may investigate the process of care and the nature

and quality of interactions between service users and health care

services.

• Spiritual interaction – It involve studies to understand the

experiences of illnesses from the perspective of patients and their

care providers at religious and cultural level in accordance with

their mental state.

These organisations for health care and support system invite

volunteers to join the movement to help people. The volunteers provide

some hours to the patients' care and help provide social and

psychological support to the family as well.

• Volunteers visit the patients often either in the hospital or at

home.

• Give their valued time to the patients.

• Maintain the patients' privacy and dignity in the care home with

an accorded respect.

• Listen to the problems and provide solutions too.

• Show clear understanding of individual beliefs, lifestyle,

religion and culture.

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