Palliative Care
Love begins by taking care of the closest ones-the ones at home - Mother Teresa
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Five common myths about palliative care and what the science really says
We may have heard it said, and in that curiously familiar tone, something along the lines of: “They’re having palliative care now.” And it’s almost as if the meaning of those words is so universally understood they need no further explanation. Most people simply assume they mean the person is now dying.
Yet, when a health professional suggests “palliative care” might be a useful addition to a patient’s care, they most likely mean something different.
So what is it the patient actually takes from the suggestion? We asked this question of people being treated for cancer in hospital, as well as their families. We wanted to explore people’s initial perceptions of palliative care…
Resources
Palliative Care Is Still Medical Treatment
Palliative and hospice care are not a discontinuation of medical treatments, but rather an escalation of treatments focused on the actual problems at hand—the extremely difficult tasks of being terminally ill and of dying—even if we wish the salient problems were different.
Palliative care needs tweaking in the coronavirus era
Health care workers need to shift their expectations for how they can ease suffering and admit to themselves they won’t be able to make every situation less tragic.
The Hidden Power Of Palliative Care
Physicians could put less emphasis on trying to cure late-stage illnesses in hospital settings and instead focus on the avoidance of suffering, and helping our patients make informed decisions about how they want to spend their final days. This, in a nutshell, is the goal of quality palliative care. Unfortunately, palliative care has often been seen as a hospital-based transition to hospice care. But an increasing body of evidence suggests that, when provided in the patient's home, good palliative care can lead people to live a high-quality end-of-life.
I’m a doctor. Here’s what it’s like helping terminally ill patients end their lives
Most requesters go on to choose other options that the discussion opens up for them, such as palliative care (relief of symptoms for quality of serious illness or end of life that is neither life-prolonging or life-shortening) and hospice care (just caring, not curing, at end of life).
A Better Way to Die
Bringing together medicine and spirituality for end-of-life care.
A transformative practice in Mongolia is helping people die with grace and dignity
What comes to mind when you think of Mongolia? My answer, probably like many people’s, was vast empty space, those signature round white tents (which Mongolians call gers, not ‘yurts’ – a word brought in during the country’s period under Russian and Soviet influence) and Genghis Khan. One thing you might not think of is “a good place to die.” Yet Mongolia is punching above its weight in palliative care, the branch of medicine that supports people with terminal or complex illnesses. Palliative care takes a magpie approach, borrowing from other medical disciplines and addressing a whole range of issues at once, ranging from pain and other symptoms to spiritual, social and psychological support.
American Children Deserve a Better Death
This is only exacerbated by the U.S.’s death-denying medical system. Medical intervention is so often successful in extending lives, Americans tend to be even more unwilling than most when it comes to stopping treatments even when they aren’t working or coping with the inevitability of death. This is especially difficult with children, who most of us believe are simply not supposed to die.
Doctors Are Poorly Trained in End-of-Life Care, but That Can Change
Dying, never easy to confront, has become still more difficult in the era of high-tech medicine. The end of life often comes after repeated surgeries, a retinue of drugs with painful side effects, endless consultations with specialists and being harnessed to life-supporting hospital equipment. We have become so adept at prolonging life that death often arrives after months or years of coping with not just one but several severe ailments. Many patients would choose not to extend their life this way, but modern medicine does not help them with this crucial decision.
In Palliative Care, Comfort Is the Top Priority
Perhaps it’s not surprising that many families know little about palliative care; it only became an approved medical specialty in 2007. It has grown rapidly in hospitals: More than 70 percent now offer palliative care services, including 90 percent of those with more than 300 beds. But most ailing patients aren’t in hospitals, and don’t want to be.
One Man’s Quest to Change the Way We Die
How B.J. Miller, a doctor and triple amputee, used his own experience to pioneer a new model of palliative care at a small, quirky hospice in San Francisco.
Patients Turn to Palliative Care for Relief from Serious Illness
Patients with serious illnesses need medical treatments to survive. But they are increasingly taking advantage of the specialty known as palliative care, which offers day-to-day relief from symptoms as well as stress and lifestyle management.
Religionless palliative care comes of age
As 2017 comes to a close, palliative care is still unavailable in more than 80% of the world. What hospice and palliative care services do exist in the Lower and Middle Income Countries is provided by charity funded and faith based hospices, operating hand to mouth, on a wing and a prayer, just as they have since medieval times when the first hospices were founded by religious orders.
What's The Difference Between Palliative Care And Hospice?
What is the difference between palliative care and hospice? Both provide essentially the same type of care by the same doctors, but there are important distinctions...
Five common myths about palliative care and what the science really says
We may have heard it said, and in that curiously familiar tone, something along the lines of: “They’re having palliative care now.” And it’s almost as if the meaning of those words is so universally understood they need no further explanation. Most people simply assume they mean the person is now dying. Yet, when a health professional suggests “palliative care” might be a useful addition to a patient’s care, they most likely mean something different.
Pallimed
Pallimed is a blog of current palliative medicine, hospice, & end-of-life research and news. It is aimed at health care professionals but all are welcome.
BMC Palliative Care
BMC Palliative Care is an open access journal publishing original peer-reviewed research articles in the clinical, scientific, ethical and policy issues, local and international, regarding all aspects of hospice and palliative care for the dying and for those with profound suffering related to chronic illness.
GeriPal
GeriPal (Geriatrics and Palliative care) is a forum for discourse, recent news and research, and freethinking commentary. Our objectives are: 1) to create an online community of interdisciplinary providers interested in geriatrics or palliative care; 2) to provide an open forum for the exchange of ideas and disruptive commentary that changes clinical practice and health care policy; and 3) to change the world. We aim to be inclusive.
American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine
AAHPM is dedicated to expanding access of patients and families to high quality palliative care, and advancing the discipline of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, through professional education and training, development of a specialist workforce, support for clinical practice standards, research and public policy.
Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association
The CHPCA is the national voice for Hospice Palliative Care in Canada. Advancing and advocating for quality end-of-life/hospice palliative care in Canada, its work includes public policy, public education and awareness.
Center for Palliative Care
We aim to ease suffering and enhance the quality of care for patients and their families dealing with a life-threatening illness, through fostering leadership and supporting outstanding educational programs in palliative care.
Center to Advance Palliative Care
CAPC provides health care professionals with the tools, training and technical assistance necessary to start and sustain successful palliative care programs in hospitals and other health care settings.
Centres for Pain Management
CPM Health Centres are being developed to help primary care physicians manage the more than 20% of their patients who suffer from chronic non-cancer pain.
Compassionate Healthcare Network
We provide online research data and original articles pertaining to euthanasia, assisted suicide, disability and palliative care. We oppose all programs, policies and perspectives which may threaten or weaken the physical existence of any person who is sick, disabled, infirm, dying or otherwise medically at risk.
European Association for Palliative Care
The aim of the EAPC is to promote palliative care in Europe and to act as a focus for all of those who work, or have an interest, in the field of palliative care at the scientific, clinical and social levels.
International Association for Hospice & Palliative Care
Our Mission is to collaborate and work to improve the quality of life of patients with advanced life-threatening conditions and their families, by advancing hospice and palliative care programs, education, research, and favorable policies around the world.
National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization
We are the largest nonprofit membership organization representing hospice and palliative care programs and professionals in the United States. The organization is committed to improving end of life care and expanding access to hospice care with the goal of profoundly enhancing quality of life for people dying in America and their loved ones.
National Palliative Care Research Center
The National Palliative Care Research Center is committed to stimulating, developing, and funding research directed at improving care for seriously ill patients and their families.
Pain Relief Foundation
The Pain Relief Foundation is a UK charity which funds research into the causes and treatment of human chronic pain and is concerned with education of health professionals about pain management.
PalliativeDrugs.com
Palliativedrugs.com provides essential independent information for health professionals about drugs used in palliative and hospice care. It includes unauthorized indications and routes, and details about the administration of multiple drugs by continuous subcutaneous infusion.
Quality End-of-Life Care Coalition of Canada
The Quality End-of-Life Care Coalition believes that all Canadians have the right to quality end-of-life care that allows them to die with dignity, free of pain, surrounded by their loved ones, in a setting of their choice. The Coalition believes that to achieve quality end-of-life care for all Canadians there must be a well funded, sustainable national strategy for hospice palliative and end-of-life care. It is the mission of the Quality End-of-Life Care Coalition to work together in partnership to achieve this goal.
Society for Pain Practice Management
We offer information pertinent to the specialty of pain management--Diagnosis and treatment information, updates on billing and legislative news items, book reviews, online meeting registration, and Membership information, Directory of pain management providers.
Together for Short Lives
Get involved today and together we can make it possible for every family to have the best care and support for every step of their journey — no matter how short.
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