The concept of
palliative care:
A type of care that combines a range of activities and treatments to
improve the quality of life of a patient (children and adults) and their
families facing problems associated with a life-threatening disease by
preventing and alleviating suffering by early detection, the treatment of pain
and other physical symptoms, as well as psychosocial and spiritual support.
In the medical sense, they understand the full care of a patient whose
disease is not responding to treatment designed to control pain and other
symptoms.
Palliative care:
Ø relieve pain and other severe symptoms;
Ø Affirms life and considers death a common
process;
Ø Does not seek to bring death closer or
postpone;
Ø Combine the psychological and spiritual
aspects of patient care;
Ø Provides a support system to help patients
live as deadly as possible;
Ø Provides a support system that helps the
family to cope with the patient's illness and pain at the time of loss;
Ø Uses a team approach that meets the needs of
patients and their families, including counseling at the time of loss, if
necessary;
Ø Undoubtedly, it improves the quality of life
and can also positively influence the evolution of the disease.
Palliative care is a key component of
general care for people living with cancer and other incurable HIV / AIDS
illnesses due to the variety of symptoms they may experience such as pain,
diarrhea, cough, breathing, nausea, weakness, fatigue, fever and confusion.
Palliative care is an effective way to relieve symptoms that cause excessive
suffering and frequent visits to a hospital or clinic. As a result of
inadequate palliative care, the symptoms do not heal, which prevents a person's
ability to continue their daily activities. At Community level, lack of
palliative care is a further unnecessary burden for hospital or clinical
resources.
Beneficiaries of
palliative care:
Patients of all ages with progressive chronic diseases with a limited
prognosis for a life of up to 12 months with uncontrolled symptoms, psycho-emotional
suffering and a certain level of addiction.
Pathology:
Ø Onco Pathology
Ø HIV / AIDS
Ø neurological and degenerative diseases
Ø progressive and chronic neglected heart
failure;
Ø Renal impairment
Ø Pulmonary pathology in the advanced stage
Ø Other progressive untreatable diseases
Ø severe congenital malformations
Ø neuromuscular dystrophies
Ø Principles of
palliative care:
Ø Treat the patient,
not the illness
Ø Improvement of the
quality of life and a positive impact on the evolution of the disease
Ø Provide control of pain and other symptoms
Ø Maintaining the value of life and treating
death as a normal process
Ø Do not accelerate, but do not prevent death
Ø Consider the patient and his family as
palliative care
Ø Holistic care by a multidisciplinary team
Ø Combining medical, psychosocial and spiritual
aspects in patient care
Ø family support during the illness and after
the patient's death
Providing palliative
care services
Palliative care services at home are provided by accredited medical
institutions for this profile, regardless of the form of ownership, based on
the current legislation of the Republic of Moldova.
Patient identification for this service is performed by the family
doctor and other specialists at the patient's place of residence, based on the
severity of the pathologies and degree of addiction.
The treatment, procedures and manipulations required for the patient are
prescribed by the family doctor who has issued the referral for medical care.
Our position is that all patients with incurable and neglected diseases
receive palliative care at home.