Our hurt and hope
Greg Andreas
Physician, presenter, quality improvement nerd Snow shovel developer and story collector
Currently, 62% of Canadians who received palliative care did so in an acute care hospital in their last month of life.
For most of these people, professionals in our system could have intervened to change this sad statistic. Thank you, to those who do! That leaves us with……
Currently, 62% of us will suffer terribly from symptoms until very late.
Recycling pathology until so late is painful and wasteful for everyone.
Chronic disease numbers are increasing and our system is already overwhelmed.
Caregivers and health professionals are stretched and burning out.
This crisis is happening because we haven’t yet adapted pathology care to people care.
We in healthcare and those needing healthcare are hurting.
This is all of our opportunity to change how we do things!
The best possible wellness is the very essence of a palliative approach.
It gives a better and on average, a longer life.
Physicians can be in the moment, helping, partnering, planning, and connecting.
Meaningful and life-changing for all.
Sadly, more is shared and known about MAID than a palliative approach.
Currently, children and grandchildren aren’t getting time with a favourite person.
What do you need to be at your best?
You can ask. I can ask. Let’s ask what it means for each of us to live. And now let’s help each other.
Locum ER physcian at Grey Bruce Health Services
2ySadly when I’m wearing my ER doc hat, I see the end results of this all the time. Patients present to the ER with at most a month or two to live, yet they have had their terminal diagnosis for years. In spite of all this time, no one has address end of life care, palliation, advanced directives, etc with them. So we are trying to deal with the new acute issue without a background or context for the patient and family to process the situation in. So when we bring up where the person is on their end of life journey, we are seen as “bad” because it is such a shock. It is of course bad that the discussion is happening then and there but that isn’t actually my fault. It was a miss at a point well upstream that started the chain and I’m just left to navigate the rapids. I really wish every patient with a probably life ending Dx, from cancer to CHF to COPD would have a chance to see a doc with palliative skills early in their disease process. Everyone would do better.
Mid-Island Account Manager at NextGen Automation helping businesses and organization streamline and work towards a digital transformation.
2yGreat insight. Hope it can change for the better - for all stakeholders. By the way - I know that truck. LOL