Palliative Care - the Importance of Palliative Care to People Aged over 65 Years - Essay Example

Palliative Care Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course Code: Date of Submission: Introduction In the world we live now there are many special needs which need to be addressed so as to improve the wellbeing of the people in the society. There are any accidents, sickness and death and these factors affect an individual from operating normally. In this effect, there is need to implement palliative care in the society so as to improve the wellbeing of the individuals in the society. Palliative care is the care which is given to people who are in need of the care like the old people. Palliative care helps to relieve stress which an individual encounters as a result of the diagnosis of the various disorders in the body of the individual (Bhatnagar & Joshi 2011). The main aim of providing palliative care is to ensure that the quality of the human life has been improved by managing the issues which can otherwise affect the wellbeing of an individual. This essay will therefore discuss palliative care of the people of over 65 years old. The discussion will be based in the Australian care and the essay will specifically discuss the importance of palliative care to people aged over 65 years. This essay will further try to establish the challenging areas which should be covered when providing palliative care. The importance of palliative care to people aged over 65 years People who are aged over 65 years are older people in the society and they are in their last stages of the life cycle. The reason why these kinds of people require special care in their life is that they tend to become so weak so they need some care to improve their wellbeing. They are also vulnerable to various diseases hence they need special care which will help to improve their wellbeing (Bhatnagar & Joshi 2011). Palliative care in their age group is used to prepare patients that death is inevitable and that they should pass there one time. This is because the body starts to get very weak ad in the process opportunistic diseases can attack the body and affect the wellbeing of the individual. In this regard therefore, palliative care is important as it helps to control situations where death is inevitable and the end result is death. In the age group of people of over 65 years, palliative care is important as it helps to provide medical attention than the one provided in the health centers (Bhatnagar & Joshi 2011). The palliative care helps the patients to live a comfortable life as well as providing effective lifestyle which help to improve the functionality of the body of individuals. The palliative care therefore helps to address various issues among the people aged over 65 years like the social, spiritual emotional and spiritual support. It helps to create an environment where all the members of the society can partners to improve the wellbeing of the individuals in the society. In some incidences, many people mistaken palliative care to be incidences of ignoring the medical care as prescribed by the doctors. This is not however the case since palliative care is the kind of treatment which is provided to the older people to improve their wellbeing despite the medical treatment. Palliative care focuses o the social care of the people besides the medical treatment prescribed by the doctors (Brererton et al 2011). This implies that palliative care helps to improve the social care of the patients aged over 65 years. This is one way of improving the life of the individuals in the society since they will feel part of the society due to effective care given to the patients. In addition, palliative care helps the older individuals to learn better ways in which they can live comfortably in the society like other people. This enables an individual to live happily with the rest of the family members. This is in the context that the patient can discuss with family members on the best way to take care of the individuals at old age and this helps an individual to live a comfortable live with other people in the society. This is one of the strategies which help individuals in the society to live a very holistic life (Monterosso et al 2007). The need of this kind of approach is to enable an individual to understand that it is not easy to predict the life and that there is need to live a positive life even if there is likelihood of death. This approach does not only enable individuals to live a positive life but also focus on the ways in which to deal with changes which might occur as the changes in life occur. This is one way in which individuals of over 65 years can live positively in the society and learn to appreciate their standards of living and that everyone must pass there. This helps to eliminate vices in the society such as immature deaths which are caused as a result of having no confidence that tomorrow holds a better future than yesterday. Palliative care has many advantages in the society if it is effectively implemented. However, there are many challenges which face the implementation of the palliative care. It is important therefore that the healthcare practitioners and social workers to develop effective strategies to ensure they manage the challenges in the provision of the palliative care. One of the challenges is the cultural challenges (Haley & Daley 2014). It has been a challenge for both the healthcare providers and the patients to understand and integrate their needs due to differences in cultural backgrounds. The most obvious cultural factor is the different languages spoken. In some instances it is hard for the health care providers and the patients to understand one another because of the different language spoken. Communication become s a problem between the parties and this makes the relationship even be more difficult (Haley & Daley 2014). In this effect, it is hard for the nurses and other health care providers to effectively provide effective care due to communication barrier which makes it hard to understand the feelings of the patient thus becomes hard to provide palliative care effectively. In the Australian set up, there are many incidences of migration from one place to another. This practice is commonly practiced by the people who are not indigenous in Australia. In this incidence, one can find that the migrating people can either migrate with the patients who need palliative care with them or they leave their patients behind (Haley & Daley 2014). When they move with their patients, they will find new health care providers who might provide palliative care which is different from the one which was given previously. The impact of this situation is that the new staff might find it difficult to cope up with the palliative care of the new patient or even the patients may find it difficult to cope up with new care provided. In this regard, migration affects the treatment schedule of the patient hence making it difficult for the patient to receive consistency palliative care thus becoming a challenge. Another challenge is unequal development of some parts of Australia. Some parts in Australia like the rural areas are not well developed to enhance the provision of palliative care services. There is poor infrastructure which makes it hard for the nurses to coordinate various functions of providing palliative care like communication with patient (Commonwealth of Australia 2006). In this effect, it has become a challenge for the nurses to effectively communicate with their fellow nurses or with the patients and help to provide services when need arises. Despite this challenge, the nurses are expected to ensure understand the environment in which work in and apply palliative approach and develop ways to improve the quality of their services. Understanding the environment will enable the nurses to understand the different needs of the older people so that they can be able to provide palliative care to manage the pain and the symptoms of any likelihood of some other infection. In addition, providing palliative care service is challenged by inadequate health care facilities. In Australia, there are some parts which have not developed fully like the rural areas. This implies that there are inadequate facilities which are used to provide palliative care to people of over 65 years. The people who live in the rural areas are disadvantaged because they find it difficult to access services like medical care and palliative care service for people aged over 65 (Clark 2004). Most of the people aged over 65 in Australia live in the rural areas where there are inadequate facilities to provide effective palliative care services. Provision of the palliative care is made more difficult because people in the rural areas are rooted into their values and cultural practices. When it comes to people of over 65, it even becomes worse because they are the people who are deeply rooted into the traditional culture. In this effect, it is even harder for them to accept the palliative care services since they think it may affect their societal norms which lead to resistance to palliative care services (Clark 2004). In addition, some of the family members may resist the palliative care services provided by the nurses since they practice their cultural way of life much. They can resist the palliative care services because they may think that the nurses do not understand the needs of their family members who are over 65. This cultural aspect therefore may hinder effective provision of palliative care services to the people aged over 65 years. Conclusion Palliative care is the care provided to improve the wellbeing of an individual in the society. The importance of providing palliative care to people aged over 65 is of great significance in the Australian society. The importance of palliative care include improving the wellbeing of an individual in the society by providing services which improve his or her health, it also helps individuals to live a positive life by understanding that death is inevitable and finally helps the people aged over 65 to plan better for their lives. However there are challenges which affect the provision of palliative care services and they include migration of people, inadequate trained personnel to provide the services to the patients and also cultural aspects which affect effective communication as well as the provision of palliative care services in the local society which are deep rooted into their norms. References Bhatnagar, S & Joshi, S. (2011). Palliative care in young adults: an issue which needs higher and better awareness. Indian Journal of Palliative Care, Vol. 13, No. 3, pp. 173-174 Brererton, L. Gardiner, C. Gott, M. Ingleton, C. Barnes, S & Carroll, C. (2011). The hospital environment for end of life care of older adults and their families: an integrative review. Journal of Advanced Nursing, Vol. 68, No. 5, pp. 981-993. Clark, D. (2004). History, gender and culture in the rise of palliative care. In: Payne S, Seymour J, Ingleton C (eds.). Palliative Care Nursing.Principles and evidence for practice. Buckingham: Open University Press. Commonwealth of Australia (2006). Guidelines for a Palliative Approach in Residential Aged Care. Enhanced version–May 2006. Haley, C & Daley, J. (2014). Palliation in chronic illness. In E. Chang & A. Johnson (Eds.), Chronic illness and disability.Principles for nursing practice, Chatswood: Elsevier. Monterosso, L. Kristjanson, L. Aoun, S & Phillips, M. (2007). Support and palliative care needs of families of children with life-threatening illnesses in Western Australia: evidence to guide the development of a palliative care service. Palliative Medicine, Vol. 21, No. 8, pp. 689-696. Read More