“’Palliative care’ means patient and family-centered care that optimizes quality of life by anticipating, preventing, and treating suffering.” -definition from CMS webpage
What does “suffering” mean to you or a loved one facing a serious illness? Is it being in physical pain? Is it being lonely? Or is it something else?
What does quality of life mean to you or a loved one facing a serious illness? Increased comfort? Emotional happiness? Or something else?
Healthcare today treats illnesses and not a patient’s suffering. While we are grateful there are professionals who treat illnesses, perform surgeries, and cure diseases, we also want our suffering treated. There is not a person on this earth who has not felt suffering. When a baby is born, he/she comes out crying. Kids, teens, adults, and elders have also all experienced a form of suffering- whether emotional, physical, spiritual, or another form.
Palliative care is the part of healthcare and more specifically, hospice care, that is designed to manage the suffering a patient typically feels with his/her terminal diagnosis. Palliative care improves quality of life in all dimensions of the phrase. Palliative care is a huge part of hospice care.
Why do we overtreat in healthcare, to the point where hospice and palliative care are used in a patient’s final days to hours of life? If everyone agreed that quality of life is the most important thing, healthcare would be better than it already is.
We have not failed when a patient cannot be cured. If a person cannot be cured, it is time to heal the person. One can go into the healthcare system completely broken and come out fixed. This is always fantastic when it can happen! When you go into the healthcare system and cannot be fixed, hospice care and palliative care can heal you. Your body may be failing, but your quality of life and your dignity are healed.
If you or a loved one is needing extra help in treating suffering, please call St. Anthony’s Hospice at (270) 826-2326.
