Soul Café in Broadacres helps give a guide to palliative care
BROADACRES – A talk hosted by Soul Café gave some advice to the soul in choosing home-based care for one's terminally ill loved ones.
Soul Café located in Broadacres Shopping Centre played host to talk about palliative and home-based care for terminally ill loved ones on 25 January.
The talk was given by Dr Edmund Schutze and Sister Chantal Masters, both from GP for Home Visits in palliative medicine. A presentation was given on a television screen, with a short video also explaining palliative care. “Palliative care can be defined as the approach that improves the quality of life for patients and their families, and it often deals with life-threatening issues,” Schutze said.
The talk of death was in big contrast to the amount of life felt outside, with children running and playing by a jungle-gym situated on a grassy area outside of the Soul Café. Masters felt the conversation of death needs to happen more, and must ‘be celebrated as much as we celebrate life’.
Schutze mentioned that the work of palliative care is understanding that life is precious. “If death is something that is occurring, or is going to be happening that we need to acknowledge it as well. “At the same time, we’re not prolonging anything we’re not there to shorten the journey. We are there to provide relief, and allow what is a natural process which has become medicalised over the last few years,” said the doctor.
Rhona Solomons, CEO of a home-based nursing agency attended the talk and gave a short, touching and heartbreaking story on her experience on home-based care. She shared how palliative care offered her the counselling she needed to deal with the passing of her mother. “I thought I was overreacting but I was just not ready to let her go and that is okay,” Solomons said with a peaceful smile.
“There is no wrong answer in choosing hospital care or home-based care,” said Schutze.
He presented a list of benefits of each, with the home care side presenting the argument that the patient will be in a familiar environment, with family, friends and pets near to support them.
The end of the talk presented a short mingling session in which attendees could get business cards of the medical practitioners in the room and ask questions for more information.
At the end of the talk, walking out of the building presented a ray of sunshine as the clouds had cleared away. The atmosphere was slightly lively.
