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The World Health Organisation (WHO), in a 1990 report on the topic, defined palliative care as "the active total care of patients whose disease is not responsive to curative treatment". This definition stressed the terminal nature of the disease. However, the term can also be used more generally to refer to anything that alleviates symptoms, even if there is also hope of a cure by other means; thus, a more recent WHO statement [1] calls palliative care "an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing the problem associated with life-threatening illness". In some cases, palliative treatments may be used to alleviate the side effects of curative treatments, such as relieving the nausea associated with chemotherapy.
The term is not generally used with regard to a chronic disease such as diabetes which, although currently incurable, has treatments that are (ideally) effective enough that it is not considered a progressive or life-threatening disease in the same sense as cancer.
Though the concept of palliative care is not new, in the past most doctors have concentrated on aggressively trying to cure patients, so that concentrating on making a patient comfortable was seen as "giving up" on them. In recent times the concept of having a good quality of life has gained ground, although many would argue that there is a long way to go yet. A relatively recent development is the concept of a health care team that is entirely geared toward palliation; this is often called hospice care.
Hospice care occurs in free-standing hospice units, homes, and (more rarely) within regular hospital units. More than a place, hospice care is a philosophy. It is characterized by concern for symptom relief, general well-being, and spiritual/existential comfort for the dying. The need to maintain quality of life in dying or "quality of dying" is important as the incidence of chronic illness increases with the aging of the Western world's population.
The patient and family are the focus of hospice care, with emphasis placed upon the well-being of family caregivers as well as the patient. Opportunities for caregiver respite are one of the services hospices provide to promote caregiver well-being. Major aspects of hospice care include the relief of pain ( analgesia), as well as psychological help for patients and their families to cope with the impending death.
Hospice is a relatively recent concept that originated and gained momentumIn physics, momentum is a physical quantity related to the velocity and mass of an object. Momentum is the Noether charge of translational invariance. As such, even fields as well as other things can have momentum, not just particles. However, in curved s in United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a state in Western Europe, usually known simply as the United Kingdom the UK Britain or less accurately as Great Britain . The UK was formed by a series of Acts of Union which united the formerly after the founding of the first modern hospice, St. Christopher's Hospice in 1967. Dr. Cicely SaundersDame Cicely Mary Strode Saunders OM, DBE (born 22 June 1918) is a prominent British physician and writer, involved with many international universities. She is most famous for her role in the birth of the hospice movement, emphasizing the importance of pa is regarded as the founder of the hospice movement. Since its beginning, the hospice movement has grown dramatically.
The first hospice in the United StatesThe United States of America also referred to as the United States U. America ¹ or the States is a federal republic in central North America, stretching from the Atlantic in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west. It shares land borders with Canada in was established in 1974. In the U.S., hospice care is provided by a core interdisciplinary team consisting of physicianA physician is a person who practices medicine. In the United States the term physician is traditional and commonly used. In Britain and Australia, the term doctor is more common as physician refers to specialists in internal medicine. Because of the extes, registered nurses, chaplainA chaplain is a priest or clergyman serving a group of people who are not organized as a mission or church. For example a chaplain is often attached to a military unit, a private chapel, a ship, a prison, a hospital, a parliment and so on. Many historicals, social workers, and the family. The focus of the team is to optimize symptom relief and function in people with terminal illness. Additional members of the team are likely to include home health aides, volunteers, personal care assistants, and housekeepers.
Board certification for physicians in palliative care is through the American Board of Hospice and Palliative Medicine.
Alternative medical treatments such as relaxation therapy [2][3], massage [4], music therapy [5], and acupuncture [6] can relieve some cancer-related symptoms. Treatment that integrates complementary therapies with conventional cancer care is integrative oncology .