End Of Life Care: Providing Care and Comfort at the End Of Life.

Comfort care is the main essential a patient needs for their end-of-life support. Comfort care comes with many different aspects the patients could be affected by. This could be useful to read, if you are a patient or loved one who is wanting to learn more about what comfort care is given to a patient.

End of life is a very overwhelming thing to think about. Many patients suffer for too long which is why palliative care is necessary.

What is Palliative care?

Comfort care is usually referred to palliative care for a patient with a terminal illness. There are many ways comfort care is used to improve a patient’s way of living. The overall goal for a health care provider is to give patient the relief in the pain they have been feeling. It doesn’t have to be just physical pain but could be emotional as well.

The different areas of comfort care come with:

Physical comfort
Emotional comfort
Everyday tasks
Spiritual issues

Palliative care is usually held in hospitals, nursing homes, at home or other clinics. Sometimes a patient with all these services will still fall behind and become worse. Once the patient is not responding to treatment and care the physician will underline their life expectancy. Once the patient is 6-month or less of life expectancy, he/she is eligible for the hospice services for further care.

End of life care

End of life care comes with generally preparing for the last days of the patient. Every patient is different and could take this very difficult, which is why there is comfort care for this. The daily tasks for a health care provider are to give treatments for pain and give therapy or counseling for their end of life. This helps the patient have a schedule for their everyday life leading to their very last day.

There are different areas of specialties when it comes to comfort care. Each healthcare provider has a certain job that follows the protocols for the patient’s needs. Overall, each specialist in the palliative or hospice facilities make a plan to keep a patient on track. Comfort care is used when a specialist can decide how much treatment is needed or when to stop using life-support machines and so on.

Comfort in finding a solution to better the situation. Many patients suffer from: pain, breathing problem, skin irritation, digestive problems, and fatigue. These are some of the many symptom’s patients face and need immediate relief.

Emotional support

Emotional support is very much needed as a form of comfort care. Palliative care offers a wide range of counseling for any means.

Having the support of loved ones plays a big role in comfort care needed. Scheduled Visits from the counselor are beneficial for a patient to better understand and accept the situation. Our social workers, counselors are very supportive by listening and being there for the patient.

The physical presence, sitting beside them holding hands, can be soothing and reassuring. Arranging visits with friends and families, with people known by the dying person to share memories and say final goodbye to them is an emotional support provided by our workers to the patient.

If you or a loved one are seeking more information regarding end-of-life care and comfort care, please feel free to reach out to us at any time.