End-of-Life Care & Palliative Care
It’s never easy when someone you cherish is nearing the end of their life. Family members experience a roller coaster of emotions and are left making the most challenging decisions in preparation for what is to come. However, through the sadness and feelings of uncertainty, what remains is wanting the best care and treatment for your loved one. As you cherish the remaining time with the person important to you, you want them to feel comfortable, supported, and most especially, cared for in all aspects.
Palliative Care in Calgary provides physical, emotional, and spiritual support to those in the last stages of their lives. Also known as hospice care, this service assists seniors and terminally ill clients as they stop medical treatments and are preparing for their final moments.
Understanding Hospice Care
As a person approaches death, they go through many changes. They may feel weaker, vulnerable, or even overall unstable. Also, depending on their conditions and circumstances, they may feel all sorts of pain or experience difficulties physically and mentally. All of these occurrences can negatively affect their quality of life. In this situation, hospice care aims to minimize their pain, provide holistic care, and ensure that they live the best way possible until the very end.
Much like other care services, end-of-life care provides optimal support and treatment. However, its main focus is on improving the client’s quality of life, making sure they are comfortable, and most importantly, managing pain and symptoms.
Clients receiving end-of-life care are usually clinically diagnosed with a life expectancy of less than a year, which is why they no longer undergo any curative treatments for chronic diseases or life-limiting conditions. In these difficult times, you can rely on our health care aides to help manage their symptoms, ease their pain, and be there for them around the clock. Death comes differently for everyone. Still, no matter the situation or circumstance, Care Within Reach is here to support both you and your loved one through it all.
Palliative Support as part of End-of-life Care
Palliative Care in Calgary is centered on helping clients with chronic and progressive illnesses to end-of-life stages. Our providers practice holistic care, including reporting and recording treatment side effects, pain, and symptoms aiming for an improved quality of life.
As care providers, we make it our mission to help the client’s family with their responsibilities and help provide relief by assisting them on their plan of care. You can rely on our skilled and experienced professional support workers to help provide extensive care for the following needs:
Physical Needs
Difficulty breathing
Labored breathing, shortness of breath, or breathing irregularities are everyday struggles for those under hospice care. Our professional support workers closely monitor your loved one’s breathing, provide assistance through gentle position adjustments, use humidifiers and fans to relieve breathlessness, or provide oxygen and medication as per their doctor’s recommendation.
Digestive problems
When experiencing nausea, vomiting episodes, loss of appetite, constipation, and other digestive issues, your loved one can feel exhausted, uncomfortable, and even in a state of pain. We provide constant care and assistance to control these problems and provide relief.
Skin irritation
In order to prevent skin discoloration, discomfort, and bed sores, health care aides assist in around-the-clock repositioning and applying lotions to soothe the skin. Additionally, we also take extra care in tending to dryness around the eyes, lips, and face to prevent cracked skin and relieve any sensitivities.
Pain Management
Whether acute or long-lasting, pain can cause stress and can leave your loved one in a constant state of unease. We prioritize addressing where and when they feel the pain, so we can actively work with the client’s care team on managing pain, and any risks that may arise from the occurrence of pain.. Our health care aides coordinate with the healthcare team to implement an effective pain management strategy so that your loved one can spend their days with minimal discomfort.
Basic Personal Care
End-of-life care in Calgary includes essential care services like maintaining hygiene, grooming, and assisting with meals. Apart from excellent bedside care, we also help manage other physical changes that our clients go through. Whether it’s temperature sensitivity, increased fatigue, or symptoms from their conditions, we adjust our care services and support accordingly.
Emotional and Spiritual Needs
Improving our client’s quality of life does not stop with physical care services. We value providing holistic care, and this includes supporting clients with any emotional and mental distress. Hospice clients tend to experience anxiety, confusion, agitation, restlessness, and conflicting emotions. In times like these, our professional support workers provide reassurance and comfort through meaningful conversation, physical contact, and words of encouragement. Additionally, we work together with physicians, counselors, social workers, and psychologists to come up with the best methods to help our clients cope and feel emotionally and spiritually fulfilled.
Family members play a significant role in helping their loved ones feel stable and at peace, which is why we encourage communication and establishing relationships. Connecting with your loved ones can help them work out any issues with their beliefs, values, and questions about their life. It is also an opportunity for them to relay their wishes and final messages.
End-of-life Care: At-home and Facility Care
We strive to provide excellent care and deliver our services with our client’s comfort and preferences in mind. We offer our end-of-life care assistance either from the comfort of your home or at a Senior Community. If your loved one prefers the coziness and familiarity of your residence, live-in care aides can stay by their side and care for their needs.
On the other hand, staying in senior communities in Calgary can provide a safe environment and more amenities. In this case, our care providers are there to augment the continuous help given by the staff at the senior community.
Whichever environment your loved one feels most comfortable in, you can expect our professional support workers to monitor and care for them based on the plan of care.
Providing excellent care with compassion
Here at Care Within Reach, our end-of-life care services are delivered not only with quality care but also with dignity, compassion, and companionship. As we support someone who is in the process of letting go of their life, we offer our best efforts to ensure that they are comfortable and at ease, every step of the way. We consider it an honor to be present and caring for the person you cherish, which is why you can have peace of mind knowing that they are in safe hands.
If you would like to know more about end-of-life care or our other services, you can contact us for care consultations, all free of charge and no commitments!
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