Chronic illness Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Chronic illness - Essay Example As a continuum, palliative care addresses the physical, psychological, social and spiritual needs of the patient and family which cannot be handled by one single agency lest it would cause fragmentation of care. It therefore follows multidisciplinary/interdisciplinary (integrative) care is the backbone of palliative care. With the integration of inputs from various disciplines in accordance with stage of the disease progression, pain and other symptoms, psychological state of patient and family, social and practical requirements and available resources, palliative care becomes a multifaceted care with the involvement of primary care and specialist doctors, nursing staff, social worker and many others in a coordinated manner ensuring continuity of care (Mitra & Vadivelu, 2013, p. 17). Thus, palliative care has been defined as the patient and family-centered one seeking to optimize their quality of life by treating their suffering which includes anticipation and prevention of the suffe ring by addressing their â€Å"physical, intellectual, emotional, social, and spiritual needs† (NCP, 2013, p. 12) throughout the continuum of illness â€Å"ensuring patient autonomy, access to information and choice† (NCP, 2013, p. ... e, its physical aspects, psychological and psychiatric aspects, social aspects, spiritual, religious and existential aspects, cultural aspects, care at the end of life and ethical and legal aspects. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act 2010 (PPACA) also has mandatory provisions for both hospice and curative care under Medicaid or Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). It emerges therefore that philosophy and delivery of palliative care has the following characteristics. 1. Provision of care through coordination by an interdisciplinary team. 2. Care needs are determined by collaboration and communication among the patients, families, palliative and non-palliative care providers. 3. Concurrent availability of services along with curative or life-prolonging care. 4. Provision of support to patient and family throughout the period of illness, dying process, and after death (NCP, 2013) The NCP guidelines were revised in 2009 and 2013. The ten year working of the NCP has witnessed 47 % increase in the number of hospice programs and 148 % increase in non-hospice palliative care programs. It has been reported that in the United States about 1,059,000 deaths out of 2,513,000 deaths occurred under the care one of over 5,000 hospices in the year 2011. That is, 46 % of deaths have been under the care of the hospices. It is also claimed that hospices help reduce Medicare program expenditures. One study reveals that cost for the terminal year of life was reduced by an average $ 2309 per patient under the care of hospice. (NCP, 2013). Integrative care Authors interchangeably use the terms â€Å"interdisciplinary† and â€Å"multidisciplinary† but they do not mean the same though they represent contributions from variety of disciplines for individual patient care.