Palliative Care

PALLIATIVE CARE

Palliative Care is about optimising life. It focuses on managing physical, functional, psychosocial and spiritual issues of patients diagnosed with life limiting illnesses.

Palliative Care is initiated at the time of diagnosis and continues even after the patient has deceased, by way of bereavement follow up of the family, carers and loved ones.

It encourages the patient to live life to its fullest with dignity and comfort.

Palliative Care – the most holistic medical speciality in the world.

The United Nations (UN) / World Health Organisation (WHO) recently named providing physical, emotional and spiritual comfort (Palliative Care) to patients with life limiting illnesses a basic human right.

Prime factors of Palliative Care include:

  • Providing relief from pain and other distressing symptoms
  • Integrating with the psychological and spiritual aspects of patient care
  • Offering a support system to help patients live as actively as possible until death
  • Offering a support system to help the family cope during the patient’s illness and in their own bereavement
  • Enhances the quality of life, which would positively influence the course of illness
  • Providing supportive care to patients waiting to have an organ transplant and be eventually cured


Did you know?

  • 1 in 3 Australians will suffer from a life limiting illness and require Palliative Care
  • Australia is ranked 2nd best in the league tables in the Quality of Death Index, however, there are still people that fall through the cracks e.g. incarcerated, refugees, the homeless and first nations people. (Source: The Economist Intelligence Unit)
  • In developing countries Palliative Care is far behind the western world e.g., Sri Lanka is ranked 86th in the Quality of Death Index
  • In Sri Lanka, there is a silent killer – Chronic Kidney Disease of unknown origin (CKDu).
  • CKDu currently affects over 400,000 people with 25,000 deaths
  • By 2032, 40% of all Sri Lankan people will be affected by the disease and require Palliative Care