Palliative & Hospice Care
Palliative & Hospice Care at Greendale House
What do we do?
Hospice and palliative care represent a deeply compassionate approach to supporting patients and their families through life-threatening or life-limiting illnesses. Palliative care is a holistic approach to the well-being of the patient, addressing not only physical symptoms but also emotional, social, and spiritual needs. Our care extends to the patient’s loved ones, providing guidance and support to families and caregivers during challenging times.
Even when a cure is no longer possible, palliative care ensures that patients can live their best lives for as long as they can. When the time comes, the hospice team’s mission is to provide a dignified and pain-free transition, offering peace and comfort in life’s final chapter.
Palliative Care
The focus of Palliative Care is to maximise the patient’s quality of life. This includes managing symptoms, discussing goals of care, pros and cons of treatment options, providing extra support and care coordination. Palliative care is provided by a team of doctors, nurses, and other specialists who work together with the patient's primary care team to provide an extra layer of support. The medical team will continue trying to treat and cure the illness, and palliative care will keep you comfortable.
Hospice Care
The focus of Hospice Care is comfort care rather than cure, assisting with goals of care and planning for end-of-life care. This includes intensive comfort care that relieves pain and symptoms while attending to an individual’s physical, personal, emotional, and spiritual needs. The medical team will work together and focus on the reversible causes of pain and symptoms and will keep you comfortable.
Palliative Care - Treatment Goals
Medication education and symptom management, navigating through progression of the illness, support and education for patient and family, advance care planning, and transitioning to hospice, if and when appropriate.
Care should start from the time of diagnosis through treatment and living with the illness.
Hospice Care - Treatment Goals
Pain and symptom management is key. The patient is always at the centre of care, with the goal of helping them live comfortably and with a sense of normalcy, respect, and dignity.
Care should start when the patient chooses to stop or go without curative treatments, the focus changes from treating the disease to providing comfort and relieving pain, symptoms, anxiety, and stress.
Home Based Care
As the preferred choice of most patients, our Home Care programme provides coordinated care in the comfort and familiarity of the individual’s home environment. The Home Care team, coordinated by the Palliative Services Manager, works closely with the Hospice doctor, patient and loved- ones to ensure optimum care, support and comfort in meeting the unique needs of each individual. Home Care services include home visits from a Registered Nurse, support, symptom management and counselling for the patient and family.
In-Patient Unit Care
A tranquil, home-from-home environment for patients needing specialised palliative management of their illness. We have an In-Patient Unit in Houghton for short-term care. Patients are admitted for symptom control, procedures such as abdominal drainage and for care when the patient’s condition makes home care difficult or no longer appropriate. The In-Patient Unit offers loved ones peace of mind and the opportunity to spend as much quality time as possible with the patient. Arrangements for admission are made by the HospiceWits medical practitioner and home care nurse. Patients are sometimes referred directly from hospitals to our facilities.
Who qualifies for our services?
Palliative Care: Anyone living with a chronic illness or disease; available for anyone at any stage of a serious illness with a life expectancy of years.
Hospice Care: Patients with a serious life-limiting or terminal illness support those with a life expectancy of months, not years.
Our services are available to everyone, irrespective of their social, cultural, spiritual, or financial background.
With the support of the palliative care team, patients and their families can make the most of the time they have together. The team works to ease anxiety and provide the care and guidance needed to navigate this challenging journey with dignity and comfort.
Need more information?
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