A Guide To Palliative Care At Home
Here is a fully comprehensive guide to palliative care at home. Palliative care is one of our many services, designed to improve the comfortability of our clients, specifically with life-limiting conditions. In this blog, we will go over what palliative care is, its principles, why care at home is the best solution and the benefits of palliative care at home. Continue reading to find out more.
What Is Palliative Care?
Palliative care is delivered to those who have life-limiting conditions, such as cancer, lung disease, and heart failure. It is put in place so that the final stages of life are as comfortable as possible.
One of the many focuses of palliative care is to manage pain and symptoms of life-limiting conditions, so that time passes with more ease. In comparison to other care approaches, palliative care is more specialised in medical care and nursing.
Palliative care also includes support with practical things, such as household chores, and provides emotional care.
The ultimate goal is that those with life-limiting conditions may choose to spend the time they have left however they deem fit. Palliative carers will take care of the rest to make this feasible.
While it is true that palliative care can be provided at the end of a person’s life, it doesn’t necessarily mean a person is going to die soon. In actuality, palliative care is often provided alongside other therapies, which aim to treat a condition or prolong life.
A Guide To Palliative Care At Home: The Main Principles
In a guide to palliative care at home, you must understand its main principles, so you can have a well understanding of what palliative care is!
Strong communication throughout deliverance of palliative care will ensure care recipients receive the best treatment possible.
Managing and monitoring pain so that medical conditions have less of an impact on quality of life.
Diagnosis and medical conditions can cause emotional distress. Palliative care provides emotional care from the point of diagnosis to a patient’s family.
Prepare and support families around grief.
Recognising individuality, by looking beyond a medical condition and seeing that patients are so much more than their illnesses.
Considerate to one’s culture, whether that be ethnicity, race, or religion, and knowing this could impact medical treatment.
The consent and comfort of the patient is an utmost priority.
Palliative carers are compassionate, sensitive, empathetic, non-judgmental, inclusive, and demonstrate concern for their patient.
Why Is A Palliative Care At Home A Solution?
You may be thinking that the best place for someone with a life-limiting condition is a hospital or a care home. This for a lot of people is not the case. In fact, a lot of people struggle to cope when removed from their home comforts.
Remaining close to family, in a safe and familiar environment, whilst receiving attentive care is ultimately the best solution. Life-limiting conditions can change a lot about living circumstances for people, but it does not have to change everything.
As a medical condition deteriorates a patient’s physical ability, their home must be adjusted and equipped so they can continue to live there functionally. Creating a comfortable environment for palliative care at home could require sourcing the following equipment:
An adjustable (profiling) bed
A bedside commode or toilet frame
Bed rails
A personal alarm, call bell or fall alarm
Grab rails/grab bars
Equipment for washing and dressing, for example, a shower chair, bath chair or a basin
Mobility aids, such as a walking frame, walking sticks or wheelchair
Continence products
Pillows, blankets, fresh bedding and towels in abundance
The Benefits
Remaining In A Comfortable And Familiar Environment
Uprooting one’s life due to a life-limiting condition can significantly contribute to the anxiety they are feeling. Maintaining in a familiar environment around personal belongings can contribute to a patient’s overall wellbeing.
Palliative Care Tailored To An Individual
In a care home or hospital, it can be difficult to personalise care based on an individual’s needs or wants as there are so many of them and they are already stretched.
With palliative care at home, care plans are tailored to an individual. The care provided also tends to be more personal, as consistent caregiving by a familiar face builds trust and familiarity with the patient’s needs.
Keep The Family Involved
Instead of being restricted to specific visiting hours or unable to stay nearby, families can be involved in the day-to-day care, allowing for a more intimate, comforting, and supportive environment.
Quality Of Life
Those with life-limiting illnesses deserve to receive the best possible care. Palliative care at home takes on a holistic approach, wherein a patient’s overall quality of life is improved, as opposed to only treating their symptoms.
Cost-Effective
The family wants to remain close by when life-limiting conditions take their toll. This can become costly when needing to travel, or even book accommodation just to be close.
Admitting a loved one to a care home can also be costly. With palliative care at home, the price directly reflects the care received without additional charges.
Palliative Care At Home With Red Rose Care
We hope this guide to palliative care at home has provided some clarity as to what it is, its principles, and its benefits.
At Red Rose Care, we pride ourselves on delivering dignified palliative care at home. To design the best and most appropriate care plans for our clients, we work closely with an individual’s healthcare team, such as district nurses.
Our team of palliative carers all undergo specialist training to ensure they have the best skills and resources to support our clients and their families through what is a difficult time. Find out more about the core values we uphold in our team here.
If you would like to know more about our services at Red Rose Care or are interested in palliative care at home from us, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
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