Palliative Care

[margrace]

Has anyone on here volunteered or helped in Palliative care in any way? Or have you every used the services for a loved on, family member etc. We are looking for suggestions on this service, good, bad, indifferent.

It has been the fastest growing volunteer organization in Canada, while other volunteer organizations are losing people it has been steadily growing. In our area we have no immediate hospital and if we can keep dying people at home it saves an immense amount of money and lets the dying remain at peace in their own home.

Any information you have would be welcome.

[margrace]

There must be someone on here who has lost a family friend or loved one and had them looked after by some type of Palliative care.

[noahbody]

Has anyone on here volunteered or helped in Palliative care in any way? Or have you every used the services for a loved on, family member etc. We are looking for suggestions on this service, good, bad, indifferent.

It has been the fastest growing volunteer organization in Canada, while other volunteer organizations are losing people it has been steadily growing. In our area we have no immediate hospital and if we can keep dying people at home it saves an immense amount of money and lets the dying remain at peace in their own home.

Any information you have would be welcome.

Going home makes the patient a person again. I think it's good for both the patient and the family.

[margrace]

One of the things everyone on here should be aware of is that tommorrow you could be diagnosed with cancer or some other disease. You have no control over this and according to some of the posters on here you really don't care. Staying at home with round the clock care is not available for a lot of people. Unless we make it so for everyone you could end up in a facility that is run on the cheap and is chronically short staffed because it costs a lot of money to run these places.

Our local doctors have set up a program that allows, for instance, supplies to be kept available for pain care. If you do not have this you could suffer in terrible pain over a weekend until the doctor or someone else gets around to looking at your problem. If you are in a hospital and the pain starts in the middle of the night, no one will call the doctor until sometime in the morning. I know most of you are young and think you are invinsable and I hope you do not find out the hard way what can happen to you in a short space of time.

Edited December 16, 2007 by margrace