Palliative and End-of-Life Care Across the Continuum
The older population in the United States has been on a constant rise in the past decade. And with technological advancements and changes in living conditions come more and complex illnesses. Currently, there are about 49.2 million people above the age of 65, representing 15.2% of the US population. As a result, the demand for palliative and end-of-life care is on the rise. Doctors, nurses, and the healthcare system are currently overstretched and continually struggling to keep up with the growing demand. Developing a robust palliate care system will help care for the increasingly aging population.
Addressing palliative and end of life care across the continuum
For many years, palliative care has been viewed as care given to people during the final stages of life. But while this type of care is important to critically ill patients, there is also a need to address the health care needs of older adults beyond the hospital walls. More focus should be given to patients discharged from the hospital but living with chronic and long-term conditions. These people need someone to engage with them, provide them and their families with the support they need, and help them make the best health care decisions.
Today, palliative care has been tailored to start at an earlier stage. Death is inevitable for all of us, but various measures can be taken to make the experience more calm, comfortable, and free of pain and suffering when it is anticipated. The psychological, emotional, and emotional pressure involved in caring for loved ones can be overwhelming to family and caregivers. A specialist, often a family physician, is assigned to such families to ease the burden and make the experience less harrowing.
Palliative care now begins after an older adult is diagnosed with a serious and long-term illness. From the point of diagnosis, a specialist is assigned to provide disease-focused care such as chemotherapy and radiation for cancer patients. This also happens for patients in hospitals and those who decide to spend their last stage of life at home close to their family. While the main focus is patient care is providing palliative care as a continuum, it is also essential in reducing the cost of care for this group of the population. The US healthcare system has developed strategies that allow specialists, nurses, and community workers to penetrate communities and offer complex care to the elderly who need care.
References
Bhatnagar, Mamta, and Robert C. Arnold. “Palliative Care.” The Wiley Encyclopedia of Health Psychology (2020): 79-90.
Baxter, K., T. Rochon, and K. Lally. “Providing palliative care across the continuum to reduce readmissions form community settings.” Ann Longterm Care 26 (2018): 27-32.
Tan Jr, Amil Kusain. “Integrating palliative care and hospice services in long term care: an eightfold path health policy analysis.” International Journal of Public Health 8, no. 2 (2019): 1-8.
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