Alice Todd wrote to us from a website on hydrotherapy for elderly and disabled people that helps them maintain good hygiene and gain the benefits of hydrotherapy.
They work hard at hydrotherapybathing.com to provide the most up-to-date information on the subject and make the palliative stage of care run as smoothly as possible.
What is palliative care?
According to hydrotherapy.com palliative care provides patients with relief from the symptoms, pain, and stress of a serious illness.
The objective of this form of medical care is to improve the quality of life for the patient and the patient’s family through ease of living, and in home improvements such as walk in tubs, stair lifts, assisted toilets, and other fixed improvements.
The New England Journal of Medicine reported in 2010 that seriously ill patients who received palliative care experienced less depression, reported improved quality of life, and survived an average of 2.7 months longer than those who did not receive palliative care.
No longer taboo
The end of life and how people die has changed radically in the past century and palliative care is no longer the taboo topic it once was.
Thanks in large part to advances in public health, medicine, and health care, more families are preparing better, embracing the end of a natural cycle and handling it with compassion.
For those who want to get their own affairs in order, and for those who are caring for loved ones with dementia and Alzheimer’s, here are six links to help you.
- The National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization. A great search tool for finding a hospice, as well as guides on issues related to palliative care, including Medicare coverage and techniques for communicating end-of-life wishes.
- Caring Connections. Provides people with information and support when they are planning ahead, caring for a loved one, living with an illness or grieving a loss.
- Compassion and Choices. A leading nonprofit organization committed to helping everyone have the best death possible. It offers free consultation, planning resources, referrals and guidance, and it works to protect and expand options at the end of life, across the nation.
- Hospice Foundation of America. Information on end-of-life issues, such as pain management. One section called “Caregivers Corner” has links, reading lists and a self-assessment tool for caregivers to analyze their own strengths and weaknesses.
- Get Palliative Care Key components of the site include a Palliative Care Directory of Hospitals, a detailed description of what palliative care is and how it is different from hospice, and an interactive questionnaire to assist people in determining whether palliative care is appropriate for them or their loved ones.
- HydrotherapyBathing.com. Contains everything from understanding the difference between palliative care and hospice care, and resources for help for those who need palliative care, to guides for caretakers and family of those under palliative care.
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