Table of contents:
- What is palliative care?
- Palliative care isn't just physical
- Palliative care helps patients and families cope with death
- Where can I do palliative care?
It's sad when someone in your family has a deadly disease but medical assistance can't help. Hope to recover from illness is practically non-existent, so that life becomes a threat. There are special ways you can do if you or your family are experiencing this condition, namely by doing palliative care or palliative care.
What is palliative care?
Palliative care is special medical care for people with fatal diseases for which there is no clear cure, or even already diagnosed with a terminal illness. The goal of this treatment lies in how the nurse relieves the patient's condition, not as a form of treatment to cure it.
Palliative care cannot be done by just anyone, because it must involve a special team such as doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals who are professionals in the field of palliative specialization. They are tasked with providing support to patients suffering from terminal illnesses and their families in dealing with the inevitable preparations for death.
This treatment can be performed for patients of all ages and with varying degrees of severity of the condition.
Palliative care isn't just physical
Palliative care is a type of care that does not only emphasize the physical condition of the patient, but focuses on emotional, psychosocial, economic, and spiritual aspects to meet the needs for improving the quality of life of a patient and his family. Often these treatments are associated with terminal illnesses such as cancer and HIV / AIDS.
Palliative care helps patients and families cope with death
In Indonesia, this type of treatment may still rarely be heard in the community. Many cases are found when people with chronic diseases such as HIV / AIDS, are ashamed to socialize and do not have confidence in living their lives. When this happens, palliative care plays a big role in improving the quality of life for HIV / AIDS patients, even though palliative care may not be able to cure the disease.
It is important for patients to have access to a health professional who specializes in mental health, so as to be able to help them become stronger through any psychological problems they have to face. Fear about the future is often a great concern for patients, and it is not uncommon for them to feel the need to express it.
To help with their anxiety, this treatment offers:
- Counseling
- Visualization
- Cognitive therapy
- Drug therapy
- Stress relaxation management therapy is also part of palliative care which involves providing emotional support to patients who feel a need for it.
In addition to the sufferer, this treatment also provides support to all family members and other caregivers. This treatment is carried out from the stage of diagnosis, throughout treatment, to near death and post-death. This is so that patients can get a good quality of life before facing death whose exact time is never known.
Where can I do palliative care?
Based on the 2007 Ministry of Health Decree on palliative care, the places for palliative care are:
- Hospital: for patients who need to receive treatment that requires close supervision, special measures, or special equipment.
- Puskesmas: for patients who need outpatient services.
- Halfway house / nursing home (hospis): for patients who do not need close supervision, special measures, or special equipment, but cannot be treated at home because they still need supervision from health workers.
- Patient home: for patients who do not require close supervision, special measures, or special equipment or care skills that are not possible for the family
It should be noted that there are limited hospitals and puskesmas that provide palliative care in Indonesia because the number of doctors who are able to provide this care service is also limited. Therefore, it is better if you need to confirm further with the parties concerned if you want to do this treatment.
