The Kerala Experience in Palliative care

Abstract

"Palliative care which deals mainly with incurable illnesses, most often in the end stages of life, is a virtual minefield of ethical issues. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), “Palliative care is an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing the problem associated with life-threatening illness, through the prevention and relief of suffering by means of early identification and impeccable assessment and treatment of pain and other problems: physical, psychosocial and spiritual.”1 The goal of palliative care can be summarised as providing relief from needless suffering due to pain and other distressing symptoms, giving psychological, emotional and spiritual care and the creation of a support system that helps the individual whose disease is not responsive to curative treatment to live as actively as possible and helping the patient and family to cope with the illness.2, 3 The aim of any palliative care programme is to maximise the quality of life of patients and their families"