Palliative care is an interdisciplinary medical caregiving approach aimed at optimizing quality of life and mitigating suffering among people with serious, complex illnesses. Within the published literature, many definitions of palliative care exist. The World Health Organization (WHO) describes palliative care as "an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing the problems associated with life-threatening illness, through the prevention and relief of suffering by means of early identification and impeccable assessment and treatment of pain and other problems, physical, psychosocial, and spiritual." In the past, palliative care was a disease specific approach, but today the WHO takes a more broad approach, that the principles of palliative care should be applied as early as possible to any chronic and ultimately fatal illness.
In medicine, specifically in end-of-life care, palliative sedation is the palliative practice of relieving distress in a terminally ill person in the last hours or days of a dying person's life, usually by means of a continuous intravenous or subcutaneous infusion of a sedative drug, or by means of a specialized catheter designed to provide comfortable and discreet administration of ongoing medications via the rectal route.
Terminal illness or end-stage disease is a disease that cannot be cured or adequately treated and is reasonably expected to result in the death of the patient. This term is more commonly used for progressive diseases such as cancer, dementia or advanced heart disease than for injury. In popular use, it indicates a disease that will progress until death with near absolute certainty, regardless of treatment. A patient who has such an illness may be referred to as a terminal patient, terminally ill or simply as being terminal. There is no standardized life expectancy for a patient to be considered terminal, although it is generally months or less. Life expectancy for terminal patients is a rough estimate given by the physician based on previous data and does not always reflect true longevity. An illness which is lifelong but not fatal is a chronic condition.
Dame Cicely Mary Strode Saunders was an English nurse, social worker, physician and writer. She is noted for her work in terminal care research and her role in the birth of the hospice movement, emphasising the importance of palliative care in modern medicine, and opposing the legalisation of voluntary euthanasia.
Malpas is an electoral district (ward) and coterminous community (parish) of the city of Newport, South Wales. The area is governed by the Newport City Council.
A children's hospice is a hospice specifically designed to help children and young people who are not expected to reach adulthood with the emotional and physical challenges they face, and also to provide respite care for their families.
Claire House Children's Hospice is a children's hospice in Merseyside.
Trinity Hospice is a purpose built hospice on Low Moor Road in Greenlands, Bispham, Blackpool, Lancashire, England. It is set in landscaped gardens and it has a central courtyard. It was opened in 1985 after several years of planning and fund raising led by Dr David Cooper. Built on a former horse paddock and marsh land and stream. It has grown from the original in-patient unit to include a day-patient unit, a children's unit, a study centre and a community care centre.
Providence Health Care is a Catholic health care provider that operates seven facilities in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Shooting Star Children's Hospices is an English children's hospice charity. It is intended to support and provide palliative care to families with children who are not expected to reach the age of 19 because of illness, genetic conditions or incurable disease. Shooting Star Children's Hospices offers community based support to families in south west London, Surrey and Sussex and runs two children's hospices: Christopher's, which is based at Artington near Guildford, and Shooting Star House in Hampton, London. Both hospices are currently rated as Outstanding by the Care Quality Commission.
Florence Wald was an American nurse, former Dean of Yale School of Nursing, and largely credited as "the mother of the American hospice movement". She led the founding of Connecticut Hospice, the first hospice program in the United States. Late in life, Wald became interested in the provision of hospice care within prisons. In 1998, Wald was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.
Hospice care in the United States is a type and philosophy of end-of-life care which focuses on the palliation of a terminally ill patient's symptoms. These symptoms can be physical, emotional, spiritual or social in nature. The concept of hospice as a place to treat the incurably ill has been evolving since the 11th century. Hospice care was introduced to the United States in the 1970s in response to the work of Cicely Saunders in the United Kingdom. This part of health care has expanded as people face a variety of issues with terminal illness. In the United States, it is distinguished by extensive use of volunteers and a greater emphasis on the patient's psychological needs in coming to terms with dying.
St. Christopher's Hospice is a hospice in south London, England, established in 1967 by Cicely Saunders, whose work is considered the basis of modern hospice philosophy.
Hospice care is a type of health care that focuses on the palliation of a terminally ill patient's pain and symptoms and attending to their emotional and spiritual needs at the end of life. Hospice care prioritizes comfort and quality of life by reducing pain and suffering. Hospice care provides an alternative to therapies focused on life-prolonging measures that may be arduous, likely to cause more symptoms, or are not aligned with a person's goals.
Calvary Hospital is an American non-profit institution specializing in hospice and palliative care, headquartered in the Bronx, a borough of New York City, New York. The hospital has a total of 225 beds.
The Journal of Palliative Medicine (JPM) is the journal of both the Center to Advance Palliative Care and the Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association. JPM covers aspects of end of life medical care.
Rectal administration uses the rectum as a route of administration for medication and other fluids, which are absorbed by the rectum's blood vessels, and flow into the body's circulatory system, which distributes the drug to the body's organs and bodily systems.
Helen & Douglas House is a registered hospice charity based in Oxford, England, providing palliative, respite, end-of-life and bereavement care to life-limited children and their families.
M. R. Rajagopal is an Indian palliative care physician and Founder Chairman of Pallium India, a palliative care non-governmental organisation based in Kerala, India. He is often referred to as the 'father of palliative care in India' in honour of his significant contribution to the palliative care scene in India. In 2018, the Indian Government honoured Dr Rajagopal with the Padma Shri award.
The North London Hospice (NLH) is a registered charity offering hospice care to patients with life-limiting and terminal illnesses. It was founded in 1984 in response to the lack of aftercare for patients being discharged from hospital in north London following the closure of St. Columbus Hospital in 1981, which had been north London's only long-stay hospital. The north London Hospice was the United Kingdom's first multi-faith hospice. It provides its specialist palliative and end-of-life care to people within the boroughs of Barnet, Enfield and Haringey. This takes place at its Finchley in-patient unit, which was opened in 1992, it's Health & Wellbeing Centre in Winchmore Hill and the majority of care is provided to people at home.
