Debunking the myths about palliative care

Date Published: {J}

By Bernie Ní Fhlatharta

Many still believe that palliative care is consumed with the dying phase of a person’s illness, when in fact those working in that speciality try to do everything in their power to improve a patient’s quality of life.

This and other myths about palliative care will be dispelled at a seminar which is open to the public this Saturday in the city.

Today, a conference entitled Cuisle Beatha, which translates as the pulse of life, is being held in the Radisson Blu Hotel for professionals involved in palliative care. And tomorrow, it opens up to the public, anyone who has an interest in palliative care.

Dr Dympna Waldron, who heads up the Cuisle Beatha Palliative Care team for the West, which incorporates Galway and Mayo, explains that many members of the public are still afraid of what palliative care entails.

First of all, she says, some people automatically resist it because they believe that it is about helping someone to die.

“That is not the case at all. What palliative care does for a patient with a terminal illness is improve the quality of that life. We help with pain management – morphine is a safe drug and helps to control pain.

“There are such good advances in science now that people are living longer with serious illnesses and palliative care is about improving each person’s physical reality,” she says.

The Cuisle Beatha team, based in University Hospital Galway but with a multidisciplinary team which works with the Galway and Mayo Hospices, is fully funded by drugs company sponsorship but is under the auspices of the HSE. The team also reaches out to Roscommon .

Palliative care has changed the way people approach terminal illness and there has been a lot of research carried out in this area in the Western world in recent years, she explains.

“We deal with each patient individually. When a person is in pain, they are unable to deal with relationships, which is an important part of everyone’s life. This is why it is so important to manage pain and that is different for everybody.

“We don’t describe these illnesses as terminal but call them life-limiting illnesses, which is what they are.”

Dr Waldron and her team believe in giving a patient dignity and coping skills to face all aspects of their life-limiting illness.

With radiotherapy advances, patients certainly are living longer and Dr Waldron likes to believe that palliative care is all about empowering the patients, who often feel they have lost their independence because of their dependancy on medical treatment.

“I have always believed that a patient should be empowered so that they are in control of their own pain management. Our biggest philosophy is to give patients control,” she adds.

Individuals have different pain levels so need different doses of morphine, all of which is discussed with the patient.

The team also has a huge educational role and it is this part which will be in play at tomorrow’s public seminar.

There are 50 patients currently receiving palliative care in Galway, many of them patients who come from other hospitals, particularly Sligo, since some of their cancer care services were shut last year.

Dr Waldron said that Ireland was a very good role model of palliative care, which was first been started in this country by the Sisters of Charity nuns in Harrolds Cross, Dublin.

The format of the seminar involves presentations, discussions and also a Q&A session. There will also be information stands by service care providers, charities and care associations.

There is no charge for the public seminar, which Dr Waldron hopes will dispel the myths surrounding the relatively new speciality and educate people on what exactly it’s about and maybe, more importantly, what it is not about.