Weekly
reflection # 7
Historically, hospice care is based on a moral necessity,
value of concern about human suffering and the ethical sense of responsibility
to help relieve that suffering (Cowles, 2003).
The hospice care maximizes the quality of a patient’s last days and to
provide his or her “safe passage”. Family
care is not substituted by hospice care but rather facilitated and supported
based on the patient’s needs.
Hospice care has a holistic perspective and a biopsychosocial
perspective. The holistic perspective
gives the direct attention to the needs of the whole person which involves
interaction with the spiritual person of the patient and his or her physical
needs. The biopsychosocial perspective
involves biological, psychological, and social spheres of our lives interacting
and affecting one another. Fish (1994)
and Germain (1984) mention that terminally ill patients often encounter a
variety of physical associated discomforts, such as pain, dyspnea, weakness,
eating and sleeping problems, digestion and excretion problems, sensory
impairment, paralysis, skin problems, or swallowing difficulty. My father-in-law who suffers from Parkinson’s
disease and is in a bed-ridden stage has the symptoms mentioned above. Since he is a terminally ill person, his
family decided to bring him home last month.
Even though he seems more comfortable staying home rather than at
hospital, he is having associated physical discomforts. Because he weighs only 70 lbs, he is so bony
and so weak. Even though he feels pain
all the time because of his muscle rigidity and pressure sores, he cannot
complain about his pain because it takes a lot of his energy to speak, and as a
result, he feels so sad and cries very often.
Social workers and nurses understand his pain and suffering, so they
give him pain relief medication four times a day. They look after him using holistic and
biopsychosocial perspectives.
Reference
Cowles, L. A. F. (Ed.). (2003). Social
work in the health field: A care perspective. (2nd ed.) Binghamton, NY: The
Haworth Press.
Fish, N. M. (1994). Social work practice in hospice care. Social
work practice in health care settings, 403-419.
Germain, C. B. (1984). Social work practice in health care: An ecological perspective. New York: The
Free Press.
I agree that hospice care is based on a moral necessity, value of concern about human suffering and the ethical sense of responsibility to help relieve that suffering. im really sorry about your father in law. It takes special caring people to take care of people in his condition. The social worker in hospice care service is responsible for making clients feel comfortable and painless.
ReplyDeleteHospice does focus on a safe passage and a social worker helps to reach this status. I agree with your blog and it covered everything we discussed in chapter seven. It takes a certain and strong person to take care of patients in this profession; I know it would be hard for me to work with patients who are suffering a long with their families. Social workers are trained for these situations though and know the right ways to go about and help comfort the situation.
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