Preserving Dignity with Palliative Care
Every human life should be valued and treated with dignity. Dignity ultimately is a right; respecting someone during caring for them is essential. They need to be respected as a ‘whole’ and not just their illness when they are nearing the end of their life, as it is not as though the way they die defines them. Everyone is naturally born with dignity, so it is only right that they die with dignity.
What is Dignity in Live-In Palliative Care?
Preserving someone’s dignity in care is an all-round daunting experience for the client and carer, but also a necessary one. The carer needs to ensure they are always honouring the client and for the client it could be hard to rely on somebody else completely coming to the end of their life. It is important that they are as comfortable as possible while they are being cared for, whether it be taking the right pain relief on time or ensuring their surroundings are clean and tidy. It is also important for the environment to be a supportive one, not just for the client but for the family and friends surrounding them too.
How Promedica preserves dignity in end-of-life care?
At Promedica it is important to us that the End-of-Life pathway is a peaceful and comfortable one, ensuring the client and family are provided with the best quality of care and peace of mind. It can be a highly emotional time and we are here to make it as easy as possible for everyone. Our palliative live-in home care service encourages regular reviews of client needs during the different stages of end-of-life care ensuring that all needs are met plus providing peace of mind for the family and friends of the patient. Typically, our palliative care service will include ensuring medication is taken on time, routine household tasks are completed and liaising with medical and healthcare professionals.
We also recognise that each patient is an individual with unique needs, these can often be described as the following:
Physical Needs
Ensuring the patient is in the right environment to receive dignified care and making sure we do not carry out any imposing or uncalled for duties of care that will interfere with the patient’s quality of life.
Emotional Needs
Communication is key. The patient will be involved in all the decision making as much as possible and encouraging the patient to share their feelings with their family.
Spiritual Needs
These kinds of needs could be; maintaining their religious/spiritual identity, wanting to know about their illness, even reminiscing their life story could reveal preferences and needs, which would aid in maintaining their spiritual dignity. Spiritual needs could also include creating a holistic care plan that also considers the patient’s dignity.
Social Needs
Maintaining the patient’s finances, encouraging them to enjoy activities like reading, helping the patient spend time with their loved ones and letting the patient choose their preferred place of death and all social activities that can be comforting.
Family Needs
This would include providing support and considering the needs of the patient’s family members surrounding their end-of-life.
There are currently over 10 million people in the UK aged 65 and over. Care for older generations is high priority for local councils yet, as a population, we still find this topic difficult to talk about. Download our free guide on how to approach the subject of care with your family members.
If you would like to find out more or access our services, please visit promedica24.co.uk to use our online chat service. You can also get in touch with our team on 0800 086 8686 or by sending an email to care@promedica24.co.uk. If you’d like to assess your care and support needs rapidly online, we have a tool available for you to do this.
We can provide live-in care services across the whole of England and we would also encourage you to visit our testimonials page to read what our clients and their families have said about our services.
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