Singapore Hospice Council

1800-333-6666

(Hospice Helpline)

[ How hospice and palliative care can help ]

1. Symptom management

Active, progressive and far-advanced conditions come with a variety of symptoms (such as nausea, bowel irritation and fatigue), and can vary in intensity. Managing these symptoms can be difficult for both you and the patient. Hospice and palliative care can help to ease these symptoms through medications, nutritional changes and self-help techniques. Receiving experienced help in managing such symptoms can significantly increase the quality of life for the patient, along with reducing the burden of caregiving.

2. Pain management

There is usually a significant amount of pain that accompanies the symptoms experienced by a patient with a far-advanced condition. Pain may be caused by surgery, treatment, injuries or by the condition itself. Each type of pain needs to be treated specifically in order to ensure maximum effectiveness of the treatments. These treatments can be a combination of medications and other therapies, or just one method of treatment. Pain management is a complex matter, and hospice and palliative caregivers have the know-how to best relieve the patient of his pain. By choosing to receive hospice and palliative care, the patient can have a better chance of experiencing effective relief from his pain.

3. Low-cost medication and checkups

Hospices can provide patients with their medication at low costs. Patients will also receive regular checkups at their homes for no cost at all, and can be taken care of in the comfort of their own homes without going back to the hospital for minor checkups.

4. Socio-emotional support

Upon receiving a diagnosis, the patient and his family will be in emotional turmoil. It is difficult for you to comfort the patient or vice versa. Hospice and palliative caregivers are trained to cope with such situations, and can offer sound advice to you and the patient on how to handle their emotions and help them focus on important matters. While creating a cheerful environment is unrealistic, it will be helpful to have a trained hospice caregiver to put things into perspective.

5. Caregiver training

Aside from helping patients directly through home care, day care and in-patient care, hospices also run regular training programs to train you in caring for patients in the right manner. Such trainings will give you increased confidence in caring for the patient, and will reassure the patient about the quality of care that he is receiving. These trainings will empower you to provide the best care for your loved ones.