Was ist Palliative Care?
The term ‘palliative care’ is derived from the Latin words palliare (to cover with a cloak) and cura (care). Internationally, this English term is used for the entire range of nursing and medical services that care for people with incurable or very advanced chronic illnesses.
Palliative care encompasses all measures that provide physical, psychological, social and spiritual support for the affected person and their relatives. The terms palliative care or palliative care are also occasionally used for the same area. Palliative care is aimed at people with an underlying disease that can no longer be cured, such as cancer, and is used regardless of age and gender. The aim of palliative care is therefore not to cure the person concerned, but to provide them and their relatives with loving support and to ensure the highest possible quality of life until the end of life.
Where can you receive palliative care?
Although around three quarters of all Swiss people surveyed stated that they would prefer to die at home, according to the Federal Statistical Office, the most common places of death are still retirement and nursing homes, followed by hospitals. Private Spitex companies such as SpitexCare also offerpalliative careservices so that seriously ill people can spend their precious remaining time in their familiar surroundings, surrounded by their loved ones and with the highest possible dignity and quality of life.
Death smiles at us all, the only thing you can do
is to smile back.
Marcus Aurelius
What measures does palliative care involve?
The World Health Organization (WHO) defines this comprehensive concept of care, which originated in the hospice movement, as follows: "Palliative care is an approach to improving the quality of life of patients and their families facing problems associated with a life-threatening illness. This is done by preventing and alleviating suffering through early detection, careful assessment and treatment of pain and other physical, psychosocial and spiritual problems." Palliative care should therefore:
- alleviate pain and other distressing symptoms
- affirm life and regard dying as a normal process
- neither intend to hasten nor delay death
- integrate psychological and spiritual aspects into care
- offer support options for patients so that they can shape their lives as actively as possible until death
- offer support options for relatives in dealing with the illness and coping with the painful loss of the patient
- Apply a team-based approach that addresses the needs of patients and their families, including loss recovery therapy (if needed)
- Improve quality of life as much as possible and positively influence the course of the disease
- be used early in the course of the disease when the aim is to prolong life in conjunction with other therapies (e.g. chemotherapy or radiotherapy), incorporating the necessary diagnostic strategies to assess and treat distressing clinical complications more effectively.
