Palliative Care
This type of care focuses on providing relief from the symptoms, pain, and stress that often accompany advanced illness. Seeks to optimize comfort and help individuals live as fully and comfortably as possible in the face of illness
what is palliative care
What is the aim of most caregiver support interventions?
Most interventions are aimed at supporting caregivers' self-care which yields benefits on the psycho-emotional dimension
Who is eligible for palliative care
Anybody with a serious, chronic, and/or terminal illness
what percentage of homecare is conducted by informal caregivers in Canada?
75-95%
This term describes a medical condition where a person's illness is not expected to be cured and will likely result in end-of-life
what is terminally ill
Family member or friend of an ill person who provides care and support for their loved one
What is Informal Caregiving?
What are the three common criteria for hospice care?
a specific prognosis (often six months or less);
a decision to focus on comfort rather than cure;
an acceptance that resuscitation won’t be used when the illness brings a natural death.
What is a concern with telehealth-based caregiver support interventions?
There is less ability to read and display non-verbal cues, which makes it difficult to establish empathy; but they can still have a positive effect on caregiver burden
What is the difference between palliative and hospice care?
Hospice care is a subset of palliative care, focused on end-of-life treatment. In general though, palliative care can be implemented with or without intention to cure the illness, and is not limited to end-of-life stages. In fact, it is recommended to be implemented as soon as possible in order to maximize patient QoL.
A comprehensive caregiver support program includes these 4 categories of interventions
Assess: identify who will assume the primary home-caregiving duties and which other people constitute the wider caregiving circle
Educate: on medication management, treatment adverse effects, symptom management, nutrition, stress management and skills training
Empower: make the caregiver feel confident; in control of his or her tasks; able to perform well; included, respected, and listened to by a larger group
Assist: caregivers must know that they can receive assistance when they need it, ranging from getting a medication question answered to dealing with an emergency.