Palliative care

Palliative care is care for people approaching the end of life.  It is designed to improve the quality of their life. It is not only for people near the end of life, but for people with problems that are not thought to be curable.  According to the World Health Organization it should include the treatment of pain and other problems, physical, psychosocial, and spiritual.   Treatment that is designed to cure people may be unpleasant and often neglects problems which are not medical. 

Medical treatment is to deal with the symptoms of an illness.  There may be counselling or therapy, which may include a chaplain, or pets, to deal with a person's worries.Kathryn Batson et al. "The Effect of a Therapy Dog on Socialization and Physiological Indicators of Stress in Persons Diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease" in 'Companion Animals in Human Health' Editors – Cindy C. Wilson and Dennis C. Turner, Sage Publications 1998,   There is a lot more attention to dealing with pain than in curative treatment. 

This care may happen in the person's own home, a hospital or a hospice. In the United States, hospice treatment is a benefit provided by the federal government since 1982.  In other countries a hospice is a specialized service often from a charity.   Even in the richest countries only a minority of people get any palliative care.    

 References 

Category:Medicine
Category:Death