Is our care complete, when in oncology clinics we mostly focus on patient’s disease, treatment and prognosis and not on the person who is the patient’s backbone and support system? The caregiver ? She/ he comes regularly to the clinic with hope- frustration, suppressed emotions- anger, pseudo active-tired : they are all sincere caregivers who accompany our patients every day
In order to support the informal caregiver the Department of Palliative Care , Bhagwan Mahaveer Cancer Hospital & Research centre, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India has started a “Caregiver Support Programme” .It will be run initially once in a month ( 2nd Monday ) for all the caregivers who attend the hospital. This auspicious programme was inaugurated by Dr. Cynthia Goh and Dr Sushma Bhatnagar, on 16th Jan 2017. Dr Cynthia Goh is Chairperson of Asia Pacific Hospice Palliative Care Network( APHN) . Dr Sushma Bhatnagar is HOD, Palliative Care Dept, AIIMS, Delhi . On this day Dr. Goh also inaugurated our hospice care facility.
We, Palliative care team (Physician, Nurse, Psychologist and other therapists) are providing these services through dedicated sessions.
- Providing Information about the cancer & its therapy, the hospital and its services, so that they will be better prepared for the present and the future.
- Empowering caregivers to handle the emotional challenges which commonly arise during diagnosis, treatment & follow-up.
- Train to communicate with family about difficult issues (diagnosis /recurrence/ advanced stage).
- Helping the caregivers to manage his/her stress.
- Train the family on practical, daily issues- Wound care, Skin care and other nursing Issues.
- Helping in the management of psychological issues and deal with loss, grief and bereavement.