Hospice Care is not just for those with cancer. As we live longer we inevitably develop a wider range of life limiting conditions. While cancer is still a major end of life cause we all potentially now face four main end of life conditions which may be interconnected with each other.
This means hospice care requires greater specialisation through palliative care, whether it be medical, community or inpatient nursing, cultural, counselling and spiritual support. Hospice Southland is luckily well resourced to provide this specialist care.
Already we see the patterns of care near the end of life relating more and more to the four major and most common end of life conditions namely cancer, cardiovascular disease, dementia and respiratory disease. Many of our patients come to us with multiple problems, experiencing one , two, three or even four of these life limiting conditions. Living longer means we may be able to extend life from a cancer diagnosis and giving great palliative care, but dementia or heart disease may develop as well.
Respiratory disease may also appear from earlier exposure in young and middle age. Lifestyle choices can ensure cardiovascular conditions develop and worsen over time. Living well, aging well and dying well means having the specialist palliative care support available when it is most needed to manage the end of life condition or conditions.
What this tells you is palliative care is becoming more complicated and the need for specialist care will be increasingly felt and essential to ensure a positive end of life experience for patients and their families.
This does cost more as we employ more specialists. Government funding does not recognise this and so we rely on you our generous community to close the gap.
Thank you so much for this.
