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The promise and pitfalls of palliative care

The promise and pitfalls of palliative care - latimes.com: If palliative care were a pill, government regulators would very likely approve it for the U.S. market. Federal healthcare insurance programs would quickly agree to pay physicians and hospitals for treating patients with the new therapy. And patients would make it a blockbuster drug in no time flat.

Yet uncertainties cloud the prospects for palliative care. Among the unanswered questions: Who will pay for these services, where will this new field's workforce come from, and what is it — cost savings or compassion — that drives this new branch of medicine?

Related: Right to Life article

'via Blog this'

Order a Caregiver Kit from Hospice of Michigan

Who is a Caregiver?

A caregiver is anyone who provides informal, unpaid care for someone they love. There are more than 65 million caregivers in the United States, and you may be one of them.

• 66% of caregivers are women 
• 40% are employed 
• 37% have children or grandchildren living with them 
• 25% are low-income 

Caregivers spend an average of 20 hours a week caring for their loved one. And those who work as well as provide care for a parent are more likely to have poor health themselves. Many working caregivers report missed opportunities for promotions, business travel, relocation and education.

Since Hospice of Michigan began caring for patients more than 30 years ago, we have stood shoulder-to-shoulder with caregivers. We recognize that they need our attention and our help. That's why we created the Caregiver Kit, which offers resources and many helpful tools for those who are caring for a loved one. At Hospice of Michigan, we are caregivers too, and we are here to support you.

The Caregiver Kit

Hospice of Michigan's Caregiver Kit is designed to give you the tools you need to help your loved one and to make your burden a little lighter.

The kit includes:

• A simple Stress Assessment tool with tips to help you manage it 
• Practical tips, tricks and tools to ease the burden of basic care 
• Information about how to talk to your physician 
• A pain scale to evaluate pain 
• A comprehensive list of caregiver resources 

To request your free copy of The Caregiver Kit, please call 888-247-5701 today or CLICK HERE to place your request online. 

Patient Pain and Caregivers

One day we received a call from a caregiver in Big Rapids. Her loved one was a 35-year-old man who had been living in excruciating pain for more than three years. The caregiver could no longer endure watching him suffer. She called us.

Within the first three hours of admitting the patient, we reduced his pain from a 10 or "Worst Possible" on a 10-point rating scale, to 3 (Low to Moderate).

This is the kind of story that makes our day at Hospice of Michigan. When we manage a patient's pain, in addition to helping that patient, we also help caregivers assess the situation that their loved one is in. We provide tools and valuable information to make their role as caregivers easier and more peaceful for them as well as their loved ones.

Adapting Your Home to Your Arthritis

Adapting Your Home to Your Arthritis - Arthritis Center - Everyday Health: No matter what type of arthritis you or your loved one faces, you can streamline the design of your home to ease joint pain and other arthritis symptoms. Here's what you need to know as you go room by room.

Coping with Chronic Pain

Coping with Chronic Pain - Pain Management Center - Everyday Health: If you suffer from chronic pain, you should know that there are ways to cope. Chronic pain does not need to run, or ruin, your life.

Resource: Imposed Death

Articles include:

• Living Wills: Vital... or Deadly?
• What About Pain Control?
• Not Dead Yet: Support to Live, Not to Die
• Thirsty? Too Bad.
• Hospice Care: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
• "Persistent Vegetative State"
• Imposed Death in the U.S.
• Are You Sure You'd Never Want to be Hooked Up to a Machine?

Download Your Copy Now

What's end-of-life care like in a 3rd world country?

Lori Smith, medical missionary in Papua New Guinea, writes: "In just one clinic day I had four cancer patients that are nearing the end of the number of their days on this earth.

"One of our dear ladies, Anna, has end stage cervical cancer. While sitting in the waiting area, her pain just became so intense she fainted. Our dear Pastor Ipa . . . picked her frial body up in his arms and tenderly carried her into the exam room like a father would gently gather up his wounded child.

"Anna is a 'regular.' The hospital has sent her home to die. There is no blessing like hospice here. People are sent home for them to do the best they can to suffer through the pain and agony of bodies succumbing to the invasion of cancer cells.

Anna hurt so much she just lay there and cried for her mama. My heart just bled in pain with and for her!! I held her and prayed and cried with her...my arms surrounding her until the pain released it's death grip on her body.

"Injecting the precious gift of pain medication...watching the instant relief sweep over her body..she relaxed in the mercy of the blessing of medicine. I could only think of the instant relief and release a simple decision to trust in Christ would bring her as well.

"The tumor now filling her abdomen, inflicting her with pain and agony. She is bleeding out both physically and in her strength, yet her heart remains strong and stubborn.

"Anna is coming to the end. It will be a really rough road. She needs mercy and peace only Christ can give her. Pray that she will submit herself to accepting that her religion and her best efforts in this life are not enough. She needs to trust alone in the finished work of Jesus. He paid it all so she could just accept His free gift of love and mercy!

"Her body left our clinic relieved, but her heart remained troubled and filled with fear."

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Sheriffs want lists of patients using painkillers

Sheriffs want lists of patients using painkillers - Crime/Safety - NewsObserver.com: Sheriffs in North Carolina want access to state computer records identifying anyone with prescriptions for powerful painkillers and other controlled substances. The state sheriff's association pushed the idea, saying the move would help them make drug arrests and curb a growing problem of prescription drug abuse. But patient advocates say opening up people's medicine cabinets to law enforcement would deal a devastating blow to privacy rights.

Kill the Pain, Not the Patient

Kill the Pain, Not the Patient - Margaret Somerville — THE MARK: I'm adamantly against killing the person with the pain, that is, euthanasia, and passionately in favour of killing the pain. So I argued that to implement that latter goal in practice, we should recognize that people in pain have a 'fundamental human right' to have reasonable access to pain management and that unreasonable failure to provide such access was a breach of their human rights. And that is precisely what the Declaration of Montreal would establish.

The declaration will function as an ethics guide in relation to pain management and an educational tool for health-care professionals and trainees. Sometimes it will be used as evidence to justify giving necessary pain relief treatment, when others would prevent that. In particular, it will help to overcome the harmful beliefs of some health-care professionals who withhold pain management because they fear legal liability or that patients will become addicted. It will deliver a strong message that it's wrong not to provide pain management, not wrong to provide it.

UK comes top on end of life care

The UK has one of the best systems for end of life care, a global study says. The analysis by the Economist Intelligence Unit looked at access to services, quality of care and public awareness in 40 countries. It found the UK performed particularly well on issues such as obtaining pain killers and quality of support. BBC

Palliative care lacking in much of the world

Most people who are dying around the world have inadequate or no access to painkillers, hospice and palliative care, according to a report by the Economist Intelligence Unit. The report blamed the cultural taboos surrounding death, government avoidance of the issue, poor public awareness and untrained healthcare workers for the problem, which affects even advanced countries like the United States and Japan. Reuters

Study finds room for improvement in end-of-life care

At UCLA Medical Center, which prides itself on caring for critically ill patients, a recent study showed room for improvement in the way doctors manage dying patients -- and the findings likely apply to other hospitals as well, the researchers say. While doctors excelled at pain control, they did less well at talking to patients and families about prognosis and goals of care. They were good about ordering comfort care, but not about follow-up to make sure the care was effective. Reuters

Dying patients denied pain relief because of legal fears

Dying patients are being denied adequate medication to control symptoms and relive pain because [UK] nurses fear prosecution for assisting suicide, a Nursing Times survey has found. The respondents acknowledged restricting medication left patients in more pain than necessary and prolonged their lives against their wishes. One nurse commented: “I was worried about the authorities scrutinising the medication record with the intention of prosecuting me for over-medication, even though the dosage was ordered by a physician and necessary to relieve the patient’s pain and suffering.”

Common Causes of Joint Pain

Joint pain can range from bothersome, to miserable, to debilitating. And as many as 85 percent of adults will experience pain in their joints at some point in their lives. The first step in treating joint pain is knowing the cause of the discomfort. Everyday Health

Easy Ways to Ease Pain

Finding relief for aches and pains doesn't have to involve piles of prescription meds or surgery. In fact, feeling better can be a cinch. Everyday Health

Get to Know: American Pain Foundation

Founded in 1997, the American Pain Foundation is an independent nonprofit 501(c)3 organization serving people with pain through information, advocacy, and support. Our mission is to improve the quality of life of people with pain by raising public awareness, providing practical information, promoting research, and advocating to remove barriers and increase access to effective pain management. (This is a different site than the APF Network, although the two are related.)

Get to Know: The American Pain Foundation's Action Network

The American Pain Foundation’s Action Network is a grassroots network of people living with pain, caregivers and health care providers, working in collaboration with other advocates, professionals and organizations who share our belief that people in pain have a right to timely, appropriate and effective pain care. This volunteer network and its leadership provide the critical infrastructure for APF’s national and state‐based advocacy efforts and gives a face to the multitude of issues that comes with living with pain or through caring for those in pain.

Still too little relief of pain

Because of our state's legislative activity around improving pain care, Michigan is one of only five states that have received an "A" grade from the University of Wisconsin's Pain and Policy Studies Group. This means, essentially, that many of the regulatory barriers that prevent appropriate pain care in other states are not as much of an issue in Michigan. However, those of us who have struggled to have our pain effectively managed, or who have witnessed the agony of a loved one at the end of his or her life, know that a good grade does not always translate into good pain practice. Unfortunately, many other barriers still exist for health care professionals as well as people who live with pain.

The time has come for our attitudes and beliefs about pain and pain care to be transformed. People with pain and their caregivers, health care providers and policy makers must work together to end this silent epidemic. The technology exists to make people comfortable, so there should be no need for people to want to die because they are in agonizing pain with zero quality of life. Michigan's Patient Bill of Rights states that "a patient or resident is entitled to adequate and appropriate pain and symptom management as a basic and essential element of his or her medical treatment." Detroit Free Press

Related: Dying patients refused pain-relief because UK nurses fear prosecution for assisted suicide (beware of objectionable photos on the site)

Shopping for Healthy Foods

You're tired, you're in pain, and you have nothing in the refrigerator. Don't fret: If you have rheumatoid arthritis, these 10 tips can make grocery shopping for healthy foods a lot easier. Everyday Health