Ongoing (palliative) care
In some cases, treatment to cure or control a disease is not effective enough. In this case, the aim shifts to preserving the patient’s comfort and quality of life.
It is at this stage that the “ongoing care unit” comes into play. This team consists of specialist oncologists, family doctors, nurses, physiotherapists and social workers. All these are helped by volunteers, who can provide help and simply be there for patients and their relatives.
Ongoing or palliative care is a very specialised field. Those who dedicate themselves to providing it are trained specifically in the fields of helping, listening, psychology of cancer, relative accompaniment, control of symptoms in advanced stages of the disease, and decision-making based on respect for ethical principles.
Ongoing care team members have both shared skills and specific skills. All these skills have the same aim: to provide patients with comfort and quality of life.
In our centre, the palliative care unit consists of three units: a hospital unit, an interface team and a mobile team.
The hospital unit has several functions. It welcomes patients at the end of life and gives them the care that their situation dictates, whether necessary or simply desired.
It also helps to assess the effect of treatment administered in the advance stages of a disease, or to provide optimum management of symptoms such as pain. Finally, relatives of patients at the end of life also need some space, so to speak, because of the demands made on their emotions during this period.
The hospital unit is arranged so as to treat comfort and closeness with equal importance. It is designed to allow relatives to stay over.
The interface team helps patients going through the end of life at home. It is called on when carers dealing with the patient on a daily basis (family doctors, nurses etc) need it. If provides assistance with specific care, such as administering painkillers via a pump. The interface team also provides a link between hospital and home.
Finally, the mobile or “intra muros” team visits the bedside of patients in various departments in the hospital. Like other teams, it is designed to help patients for whom treatment initially given to cure or control cancer is no longer helping.
The mobile team also helps improve control of symptoms, provides psychological support for patients or their relatives, and helps determine the path taken when patients leave the specialist department (return home, accompaniment service, transfer to ongoing care unit or a rest home or care home, with or without the assistance of an accompanying team, etc).
Like the interface team, the mobile or “intra muros” team becomes involved when the hospital department to which the patient is admitted requests it.
It is at this stage that the “ongoing care unit” comes into play. This team consists of specialist oncologists, family doctors, nurses, physiotherapists and social workers. All these are helped by volunteers, who can provide help and simply be there for patients and their relatives.
Ongoing or palliative care is a very specialised field. Those who dedicate themselves to providing it are trained specifically in the fields of helping, listening, psychology of cancer, relative accompaniment, control of symptoms in advanced stages of the disease, and decision-making based on respect for ethical principles.
Ongoing care team members have both shared skills and specific skills. All these skills have the same aim: to provide patients with comfort and quality of life.
In our centre, the palliative care unit consists of three units: a hospital unit, an interface team and a mobile team.
The hospital unit has several functions. It welcomes patients at the end of life and gives them the care that their situation dictates, whether necessary or simply desired.
It also helps to assess the effect of treatment administered in the advance stages of a disease, or to provide optimum management of symptoms such as pain. Finally, relatives of patients at the end of life also need some space, so to speak, because of the demands made on their emotions during this period.
The hospital unit is arranged so as to treat comfort and closeness with equal importance. It is designed to allow relatives to stay over.
The interface team helps patients going through the end of life at home. It is called on when carers dealing with the patient on a daily basis (family doctors, nurses etc) need it. If provides assistance with specific care, such as administering painkillers via a pump. The interface team also provides a link between hospital and home.
Finally, the mobile or “intra muros” team visits the bedside of patients in various departments in the hospital. Like other teams, it is designed to help patients for whom treatment initially given to cure or control cancer is no longer helping.
The mobile team also helps improve control of symptoms, provides psychological support for patients or their relatives, and helps determine the path taken when patients leave the specialist department (return home, accompaniment service, transfer to ongoing care unit or a rest home or care home, with or without the assistance of an accompanying team, etc).
Like the interface team, the mobile or “intra muros” team becomes involved when the hospital department to which the patient is admitted requests it.
