Palliative Treatment
Palliative care and mesothelioma are intimately related. As the advanced stages of the disease manifest and the patient enters the terminal phase, palliative care becomes the only treatment option remaining to a physician of a patient with mesothelioma.
The goal of palliative care is to provide professional medical services to the patient, managing his or her pain and other symptoms in such a way as to allow the social, emotional and spiritual needs of each patient and his or her family to be met. The professional provision of palliative care is the function of the hospice.
A hospice is a medical facility specially oriented to providing palliative care. It offers residents a program of comfort, physical care and psychological support that would be impractical in a hospital setting. Hospice services typically include:
- pain management
- medical and nursing care
- grooming & hygiene assistance
- social services
- grief counseling
- personal assistance
- spiritual care
- family training
- other palliative services
Mesothelioma is invariably fatal. Avoiding this fact constitutes an avoidance of reality. Competent and compassionate mesothelioma symptom palliation allows patients to face reality and reach the end of their natural lives in dignity and comfort.
