| Abstract: |
Palliative care is the active holistic care of individuals across all ages with serious health-related suffering (SHS) due to severe illness and especially of those near the end-of-life. It includes the prevention, early identification, comprehensive assessment and management of physical issues, psychological distress, spiritual distress and social needs. Globally, there is immense unmet need for palliative care services and chronic and cancer pain management, calling for integration of palliative care as a strategic priority for WHO's Universal Health Coverage efforts. Palliative care arose out of a concept of hospitality, of welcome of the 'other'. It combines a commitment to intellectual rigour coupled with a 'friendship of the heart, the vulnerability of one person before another'. This is our depth story, the recognition in this 'other', of the common condition of human suffering, and responding with all the means at one's disposal, including the person and presence of the palliative care practitioner. We bring our subjectivities to the encounter with the person who is ill and in need, and it is this encounter which facilitates healing and the relief of suffering. The COVID19 pandemic has accentuated the critical importance of inter-personal relationships in palliative care, revealing the suffering brought about by isolation, distancing from family and significant others, and the impact on health care professionals witnessing this intolerable separation. As palliative care has developed over the past 60 years, the scope has expanded into all settings of health care (home, hospital consultancy and outpatient clinics, inpatient palliative care units/hospices), across all age groups, and all diagnoses, according to needs. This chapter will describe the evolution of palliative and hospice care, the challenges and barriers to achieving universal access to this care, and illustrate its practice and implementation through the lenses of advanced cardiac illnesses, and paediatric populations. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023. All rights reserved. |
