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Unfortunately many of us will come across a situation in our lives where a loved one or ourselves are diagnosed with a life limiting illness. The End of life care pathway has been around for a while now, but in my experience there is little known about this approach. The End of life care pathway is not palliative care, it is a holistic approach to ensuring quality of life during a life limiting or terminal illness. It's not just about pain and symptom relief - this is generally thought of as palliative care and of course is important, but the pathway intends to start at the time of diagnosis, and continue to support family, friends and carers after death.
The Government launched The National End of Life care programme initially in 2008, however in doing a course at the moment in end of life care through my job, and doing some research, I have discovered that the programme is little known and what is known is plagued with misinformation.
http://www.endoflifecareforadults.nhs.uk/
Due to the very nature of the programme, it may be difficult for people to talk about it, or to ask about it. The website will provide helpful information for patients, their carers, family and friends and professionals like me. More and more care settings are recognising the need for professionals to be trained well in this area, and this can only be a good thing. To talk about it is not 'morbid', it promotes individual choice and enables the patients and family and carers to be well informed and in control as much as practically possible.
The general idea is to offer high quality care to anyone nearing the end of their life - and as I said before this does not just mean those last few days, it aims to support the patient and their loved ones from diagnosis. The focus is on quality of life and what that person needs spiritually, emotionally, religiously, mentally and physically to ensure all their needs are met fully.
I realise that this may be a sensitive subject for many of you, but feel that it is an area that is taboo in our society and people are losing out because of this. I am not sure if this is a geographical problem and I happen to live in an area where the programme has not reached fully, or if this is country wide.
I hope this can be of help to someone, I am no expert but this is an area I feel strongly about and if I can help anyone I'll try.
The Government launched The National End of Life care programme initially in 2008, however in doing a course at the moment in end of life care through my job, and doing some research, I have discovered that the programme is little known and what is known is plagued with misinformation.
http://www.endoflifecareforadults.nhs.uk/
Due to the very nature of the programme, it may be difficult for people to talk about it, or to ask about it. The website will provide helpful information for patients, their carers, family and friends and professionals like me. More and more care settings are recognising the need for professionals to be trained well in this area, and this can only be a good thing. To talk about it is not 'morbid', it promotes individual choice and enables the patients and family and carers to be well informed and in control as much as practically possible.
The general idea is to offer high quality care to anyone nearing the end of their life - and as I said before this does not just mean those last few days, it aims to support the patient and their loved ones from diagnosis. The focus is on quality of life and what that person needs spiritually, emotionally, religiously, mentally and physically to ensure all their needs are met fully.
I realise that this may be a sensitive subject for many of you, but feel that it is an area that is taboo in our society and people are losing out because of this. I am not sure if this is a geographical problem and I happen to live in an area where the programme has not reached fully, or if this is country wide.
I hope this can be of help to someone, I am no expert but this is an area I feel strongly about and if I can help anyone I'll try.
