Palliative Home Care

Palliative care focuses on comfort, happiness, and pain relief in the face of serious, terminal illness. The goal of palliative care is to improve one’s quality of life by increasing comfort, promoting dignity, and providing a caring support system to the person who is ill and their loved ones.

Individualised Care is experienced at providing supporting in-home care to those who need it most – terminally ill people and their families.

Why Palliative Homecare?

In essence, you could say that Palliative Home Care generally treats death as a natural occurrence. While not seeking to hasten death (as Palliative care is often employed side by side with curative care), it is utilized as a comforting celebration of one’s life. Death is never easy, no matter the age of the afflicted, but the proper Palliative care can help ease the burden on all involved – the patient, and their families / loved ones.

Individualised Care’s staff provides emotional and practical support to families who have a parent / child with a life threatening or terminal illness. Our Workers join the family in their own home, and are there to provide practical support / personal care. We are contactable 24 hours a day for families in crisis, and remain available every step of the way - from diagnosis through treatment and even after bereavement.

Palliative care can be delivered in any setting, including home, care homes, hospitals, and hospices. Given the choice, most patients choose to face death in their homes, comfortable, and surrounded by their loved ones. We help them with exactly that, and provide a support system in place to ensure that their quality of life is enhanced.

Individualised Care can help you and your loved one during this difficult time, regardless of affliction (the term "palliative care" is increasingly used with regard to diseases other than cancer such as chronic, progressive pulmonary disorders, renal disease, chronic heart failure, HIV/AIDS, and progressive neurological conditions. In addition, the rapidly growing field of pediatric palliative care has clearly shown the need for services geared specifically for children with serious illness.)

To sum it up, Palliative care:

• Provides relief from pain, shortness of breath, nausea, and other distressing symptoms.
• Affirms life and regards dying as a normal process.
• Intends neither to hasten nor to postpone death.
• Integrates the psychological and spiritual aspects of patient care.
• Offers a support system to help patients live as actively as possible.
• Also offers a support system to help the family cope.
• Uses a team approach to address the needs of patients and their families.
• Will enhance quality of life for your loved one.
• Can be applicable early in the course of illness, in conjunction with other therapies that are intended to prolong life, such as chemotherapy or radiation therapy.

While palliative care may seem to offer a broad range of services, the goals of palliative treatment are concrete: relief from suffering, treatment of pain and other distressing symptoms, psychological and spiritual care, a support system to help the individual live as actively as possible, and a support system to sustain and rehabilitate the individual's family.

Our Support staff is trained in palliative care, and has relevant experience working with individuals and their loved ones. For more information on how we can help, please contact our dedicated Home Care team at 0208 004 7389 or info@individualised-care.co.uk.