WITH 16 April marking Advanced Healthcare Planning Day, Zululand Hospice has urged the public to take time to research and understand the significance of this day.
Zululand Hospice Public Relations Office, Tatum Bristow, said that many people find it difficult to discuss their plans for advanced healthcare because they feel that while they are young and healthy, it seems irrelevant.
‘It is important to have an advanced healthcare plan so that if you are ever critically ill or injured, your family and doctors know what your your wishes are.
‘It is a good idea to discuss your preferences with your doctor and family and to review and update your advanced healthcare plan document as your wishes and views may change over time,’ Bristow said.
‘You should have an advanced healthcare directives or a living will.
‘A living will is a document that contains your wishes for your personal care, and medical treatment or non-treatment. It will only come into effect if you are found to lack capacity to make personal decisions,’ she said.
An advanced directive is different from a living will as it allows you to appoint a medical proxy (a loved one or family member) to speak on your behalf should you be incapacitated.
‘In a medical emergency an advanced directive will help the people who are responsible for your care to decide on your treatment.
‘If you do not have an advanced directive you may be subject to aggressive or invasive medical treatment that you may not necessarily want,’ said Bristow.
According to the World Healthcare Organization, palliative care is an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing the problem associated with life-threatening illness.
Palliative care:
• provides relief from pain and other distressing symptoms;
• affirms life and regards dying as a normal process;
• intends neither to hasten or postpone death;
• integrates the psychological and spiritual aspects of patient care;
• offers a support system to help patients live as actively as possible until death;
• offers a support system to help the family cope during the patient’s illness and in their own bereavement;
• uses a team approach to address the needs of patients and their families, including bereavement counselling;
• will enhance quality of life, and may also positively influence the course of illness;
• Is applicable early in the course of illness, in conjunction with other therapies that are intended to prolong life, such as chemotherapy or radiation therapy, and includes those investigations needed to better understand and manage distressing clinical complications.
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