Palliative care ensure that life remains meaningful

Each year an estimated 56.8 million people are in need of palliative care, most of whom live in low- and middle-income countries. For children, 98% of those needing palliative care live in low- and middle-income countries with almost half of them living in Africa. Palliative care is care that provides relief from symptoms resulting from disease or injury. In comparison to curative care, which is meant to cure a disease, palliative care is meant to make the patient more comfortable. The definition of palliative care is "to make a disease or its symptoms less severe or unpleasant without removing the cause." Palliative care will lessen or "palliate" the symptoms and improve your quality of life. Palliative care can help ensure that life remains meaningful and fulfilling despite living with a serious illness. It does this through: practical help, for example, some families may need support with adapting their homes to support a person with a serious health problem; physical care: looking after the needs of the body, through mobility aids and exercises, for instance; medicines: medicines can be used to help with symptoms like pain, vomiting, breathlessness, anxiety, depression and confusion; spiritual support: helping people meet their spiritual needs, such as feeling a sense of belonging, repairing relationships and searching for meaning;emotional support: helping people and their families through the complex emotional challenges of living with a serious illness. Palliative care is an approach that improves the quality of life of patients (adults and children) and their families who are facing problems associated with life-threatening illness. It prevents and relieves suffering through the early identification, correct assessment and treatment of pain and other problems, whether physical, psychosocial or spiritual. Addressing suffering involves taking care of issues beyond physical symptoms. Palliative care uses a team approach to support patients and their caregivers. This includes addressing practical needs and providing bereavement counselling. It offers a support system to help patients live as actively as possible until death. The goal of palliative care is to relieve suffering and provide the best possible quality of life for patients and their families. Symptoms may include pain, depression, shortness of breath, fatigue, constipation, nausea, loss of appetite, difficulty sleeping, and anxiety. The team will help you gain the strength to carry on with daily life. In short, palliative care will help improve your quality of life. Palliative care provides relief in a variety of ways. Physical symptoms such as pain, fatigue, loss of appetite, nausea/vomiting and sleep loss can all be mitigated with palliative approaches, whether through drugs, nutrition, deep breathing, or acupuncture.