We pledge you to provide palliative care in Delhi services to old people and metastatic ill patients regardless of age, race and religion.
We must put life into their days and not just empty days into their lives.
The concept of Palliative care in Delhi is derived from cloak it means not addressing the underlying cause but only the ameliorating effects of any condition.
The goals of Palliative Care in Delhi are:
- Achievement of the best possible quality of life for elderly patients
- Good control of symptoms and medication
- To facilitate adjustment to many ‘losses’ of advanced and terminal illness
- To facilitate and guide the completion of unfinished jobs
- A dignified death with minimum distress
- Prevention of certain problems in bereavement
The bedrock of the palliative philosophy is patient centered holistic elderly care that focuses on quality of life and extending maximum support to their family members and care givers. This is encompassed in the following quotation:
What are the needs of the patient?
Patients in palliative care in Delhi need autonomy, choice, including the right to deny their treatment; right to being confidential and wherever it is possible, to choose the setting of their own death and degree of care givers involvement. In simple words, the patient information needs all the information, good quality of last stage of life and a dignified death.
Information Required for the patient:
A patient needs sensitive, clear explanation of:
- The diagnosis of the disease and its implications
- The effects of given treatments on activities of their daily living
- The type and extent of family members support and care givers support
- Expected symptoms of their disease and what may be done about to cure them or how to handle them
Quality of life at their illness
A patient has a need to lead a life that is as normal and congenial and dignified, as possible. An individual’s quality of life will depend upon minimizing the gap between his expectations and aspirations to his actual experiences in life. This may be achieved by:
- General respect, as a elderly person / senior patient
- Effective relief from pain if any and other distressing symptoms or any sort of pain they’re experiencing
- An appropriate meal and satisfying diet that is easy to digest
- Comfort, warmth and consolation, especially from those who share the patient’s religious beliefs and care givers
- Consistent and effective response to changes in psycho, social and physical discomfort
- Information about self-help, support and other similar groups and services that cares them
There is always something more that can be done to help an elderly patient palliative care in Delhi but it is not always possible to completely relieve from all their symptoms. An acceptable solution must be found to provide adequate relief of distress for the patient and make them comfort.
Symptoms or any pain that needs to be relieved:
Pain occurs in 75% of the cancer patients and these pain has to be relieved. The pain for cancer patients is experienced and influenced by social, physical, emotional and spiritual factors. Patients with advanced cancer disease usually have heavy and constant pain and thus they require analysis to be taken at regular intervals.
Some cancer patients may seek the techniques of relaxation technique, complementary therapy, hypnotherapy, massage, aromatherapy and homeopathic remedies to control their unbearable pain.
Analgesics need to be given at regular intervals of time. Drugs like Fentanyle, morphine and still many are always not freely available in all the open markets but are a available in the palliative care prescription centres and this team gets them.
Some of the common symptoms are:
- Gastrointestinal symptoms– Questions regarding sore and dry mouth, nausea, appetite and constipation should always be considered. Many patients who suffer unrelenting nausea find this more disabling than compared to pain. Constipation can cause considerable distress, requiring laxatives or some sort of dietary modifications.
- Respiratory symptoms – As many as 90% of patients with cancer will experience significant breathlessness and more exhausted in the last few weeks of life. In patients with end-stage Congestive Cardiac Failure (CCF) or Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), prevalence may be still even more greater. The three common respiratory problems and symptoms are cough, breathlessness and hemoptysis (blood in sputum). Symptomatic relief may be given with medications & oxygen inhalations etc. at home.
- Managing complications of advanced cancer– Metastatic or advanced cancer may cause severe complications which require urgent intervention to palliate symptoms may either restore function or prevent deterioration. Such complications often have a long profound effect on a patient’s functional ability and their quality of life. Patient may need referral to immediate medical centre for problems like stridor, impending paraplegia, leakage from tubes, retention of urine etc.
- Care of children– Parents bear a heavy responsibility for personal card and nursing of their child and most take on burdens willingly. Problems which young children face are pain, feeding, neurological, respiratory etc. Parents need lot of guidance as well as emotional support.