When your elderly family member gets the news that she’s dealing with a serious health issue, she may not realize that she’s got other options to help her manage how she’s feeling. Palliative care offers options that work with the care plans recommended by your senior’s medical providers. Those options aren’t curative in nature, but more about offering comfort.
Palliative Care Isn’t about the End of Your Senior’s Life
Most people don’t hear much about palliative care until someone’s health gets to be compromised. This type of care is meant for people dealing with chronic health issues, which are usually severe in nature. Palliative therapies might be recommended if your senior has COPD, cancer, heart disease, or some other type of chronic health problem. These types of health issues may not immediately endanger your senior’s life, but they can make her extremely uncomfortable and change how she lives.
At Arcy Healthcare, we use the term “supportive care” to describe this type of care. Palliative care is provided by a Nurse Practitioner on the team at Arcy Supportive Care.
Managing Symptoms Is a Key Goal of Palliative Therapies
These types of health issues often bring with them a wide range of side effects and symptoms which impact your senior’s life in a significant way. Those symptoms might involve difficulty breathing, sleeping issues, fatigue, and more. Your elderly family member may find that these symptoms seriously impact her quality of life, making it difficult to cope with the changes she’s experienced.
Treatment Options Vary
Home health care is able to assist your senior with a variety of different treatment options. Supports such as physical therapy, occupational therapy, and nutritional assistance all help your elderly family member to manage issues related to her health conditions. As your elderly family member’s needs change, the types of assistance that she has available to her can also change.
Maintaining and Improving Quality of Life Is the Goal
Quality of life often takes a big hit from chronic illness. Your senior may be dealing with physical issues, but emotional and mental health issues, as well. Stress certainly doesn’t help, either. Taking steps to reduce your senior’s stress as much as possible can help her on multiple levels. And home health care can help you and your elderly family member to find solutions to help her to manage what she’s feeling and experiencing.
Chronic illness affects every aspect of your elderly family member’s life, so it’s important to help her to mitigate those impacts as much as possible. Having help with that large of a task makes it more likely that you’ll be able to do more for your senior.
If you or an aging loved-one is considering Palliative Care/supportive care, please contact the caring staff at Arcy supportive care today. 469-348-0670
My name is Jimmie Stapleton. I am the founder and CEO of Arcy Healthcare. Arcy Healthcare includes Arcy Hospice, Arcy Supportive Care, MaximaCare Home Health and Arcy at Home.
Arcy Hospice was opened in 2007 to provide care and support for individuals and families facing a life limiting illness. It was established after my wife Ellen, who had been diagnosed with breast cancer, had completed her chemo and radiation therapies. At that time, things were looking positive, and we wanted to do something for our community that had been so supportive of our family during her treatments. Unfortunately, the cancer returned a few years later, and she subsequently passed away under our care in 2010.
In the years that followed, I began to see the need to provide the same level of excellent care to patients across the continuum of care. Therefore, we have added a home health division (MaximaCare Home Health), a palliative care division (Arcy Supportive Care), and a home care division, (Arcy at Home). With the addition of these divisions, we can meet most of the post-acute care needs for you and your family in your home.
I started Arcy Hospice with my wife as my motivation to provide exceptional care and support in the patient’s home, where they are surrounded by family and where they feel most comfortable. I’m proud to say that our staff provides some of the best in home care in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area.
Please let us know if we can enrich the quality of life for you or a loved one.
Sincerely,
Jimmie Stapleton – Founder and CEO
Arcy Healthcare
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