What is palliative care

If you or loved ones are facing a serious illness, you’ve probably been hearing a lot about treating pain. You may have heard the terms “palliative care” or “hospice.” Both are meant to bring comfort and relief, but they differ in some important ways. To get the right kind of care in your situation, you need to have a good idea of what each service offers. What Is Palliative Care? This program aims to ease pain and help with other problems if your illness is serious but not considered to be life-threatening for now. It helps people live with the symptoms of long-running things such as cancer, kidney disease or AIDS, or with the side effects of the treatments. Palliative medicine doesn’t replace other treatments. It’s an addition that helps you and your family deal with things such as nausea, nerve pain, or shortness of breath. If an illness makes it harder to work, play, get around, or causes depression, palliative care can address that, too. People have said they feel more in control of their lives as a result. Even in cases where an illness is expected to be fatal, this type of care can help you live as active a life as possible. What Is Hospice Care? This is for people who have learned from doctors that they are not expected to recover from their condition. It’s about easing pain and helping families prepare for the end of life. Palliative care is part of that, but it’s just one part. People in hospice care generally are expected to have less than 6 months to live. They...

Palliative care is a crucial part of integrated, people-centred health services. Relieving serious health-related suffering, be it physical, psychological, social, or spiritual, is a global ethical responsibility. Thus, whether the cause of suffering is cardiovascular disease, cancer, major organ failure, drug-resistant tuberculosis, severe burns, end-stage chronic illness, acute trauma, extreme birth prematurity or extreme frailty of old age, palliative care may be needed and has to be available at all levels of care. It is estimated that globally only 14% of patients who need palliative care receive it; to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 3, working towards universal health coverage, countries have to strengthen palliative care services. WHO works with countries to include palliative care as a key part of their health systems. To improve equitable access to palliative care services, emphasis is given to a Primary Health Care approach. Assessment tools have been developed to measure progress made. Strong partnerships are in place to develop and implement technical guidance, to strengthen capacity and to disseminate information.