What is Palliative Care?
Definition
Palliative care is an interdisciplinary medical approach that targeting to preventing and relieving the symptoms and to increasing quality of life of the patients with serious and life-threatening illnesses and also improving quality of life of their caregivers and families. The aim of palliative care is to relieve suffering not only in end of life stage but also in all stages of a non-curable disease starting the diagnosis. In addition, palliative care extends to bereavement period of patients’ family members. Behind struggling with the medical problems such as pain, nutritional problems or other distressing symptoms, palliative care also focuses on physical, psychosocial and spiritual needed of the patients and families.
Goals of palliative care
- Struggling with the medical problems including pain, malnutrition, pressure ulcers and other distressing symptoms
- Increasing quality of life both patients and their families or caregivers
- Organizing and providing supports to patients or their families about physical, psychosocial and spiritual needed
Interdisciplinary team of palliative care
- Physicians
- Nurses
- Psychologists
- Physiotherapists
- Social workers
- Dietitians
- Occupational Therapists/Ergotherapists
- Spiritual support teams
The most common diseases which are needed palliative care
- Dementia (Alzheimer disease, vascular dementia etc.)
- Stroke
- Parkinson disease
- Other neurological diseases (multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy etc.)
- Malignancies
End stage organ failure (heart, renal, liver, lung etc.)