Providing Hospice & Palliative Care in Orangeburg, Bamberg, & Calhoun Counties

Health Care News

What Is Involved in Your Senior’s Palliative Care Plan?

Palliative Care Bowman SC-Over time, your elderly family member’s care plan is likely going to change. Having a palliative care plan is vital for your senior, but what is involved in that plan?
Palliative Care Bowman SC - What Is Involved in Your Senior’s Palliative Care Plan?
Palliative Care Bowman SC - What Is Involved in Your Senior’s Palliative Care Plan?

It’s always best that your senior start a palliative care plan as soon after being diagnosed with a chronic health issue as she can. But if she’s not sure what that type of care and planning involves, your elderly family member might be reluctant to add one more thing to her situation. Here’s what your senior can expect from working with palliative providers.

Educating Her about Her Health Issues

The more that your senior knows and understands about her health issues and how they’re likely to change in the future, the better off she’ll be. Having that information helps her to make better decisions about her care and about treatments that are likely to help her going forward. You need to learn as much as you can, also, to help you to be there for your senior as her health changes.

Planning Out Practical Needs and Palliative Care Support

There are a lot of different practical concerns that need to be addressed, of course. These might be things like determining what assistive devices might help her or lining up home care providers to help with household tasks. Palliative care providers can help you to work out exactly what your elderly family member needs and how to meet those needs. If there are other therapies that would help your senior to be as comfortable as possible, they’ll be important to add to the plan.

Addressing Other Needs

Your elderly family member isn’t just a collection of health needs, however. She has other needs, including social and spiritual needs. Palliative care recognizes that and works to ensure that your senior is able to have all of her needs met along the way. This helps her to be comfortable as well because she’s hopefully working toward eliminating questions you might have down the road as her condition worsens.

Identifying Symptoms and Developing Solutions

Symptoms need to be managed, especially when they’re getting more serious all the time. Another aspect of palliative care is that providers work with your elderly family member to identify the symptoms that are causing her the most trouble and work with her to find solutions that help. Some of those solutions are handled in concert with your senior’s medical team, but others might involve other types of treatments, like massage therapy.

Planning for Other Resources

Palliative Care Bowman SC - What Is Involved in Your Senior’s Palliative Care Plan?
Palliative Care Bowman SC – What Is Involved in Your Senior’s Palliative Care Plan?

There’s a lot to helping your senior to be as comfortable as she can be, including lining up other types of help as necessary. You may need respite time as your senior’s primary family caregiver and there are likely other needs as well. Having easy access to the resources you all need as soon as possible is absolutely crucial when you’re trying to ensure that your elderly family member has everything that actually helps her.

Over time, your elderly family member’s care plan is likely going to change. Palliative care helps her to ensure that the supportive treatments that she needs work along with the other changes that she’s experiencing to help her to feel as well as she can.

If you or your aging loved one could benefit from Palliative Care Services in Bowman SC, contact the caring staff at Grove Park Hospice, at (803)536-6644.

Providing Hospice & Palliative Care in Orangeburg, Bamberg, & Calhoun Counties

Recent Posts

Categories

Contact Us About Home Care

Skip to content