PALO ALTO – New America Media recently held a Journalism Fellowship Program in Palliative Care at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California.
The goal of the program is to educate journalists in the emerging medical field of Palliative Care so that in turn, journalists can educate their readers and viewers.
According to experts at the fellowship program, Palliative Care deals with managing different pains and symptoms like itching, rashes, pain, constipation, psycho-social stress and depression, among other things.
It also includes communication with the patient and the patient’s family about the ongoing medical circumstance.
Program speakers include Dr. VJ Periyakoil of the Stanford Pallitative Care Education & Training, Silvia Austerlic of the Hospice of Santa Cruz County, and NAM’s Executive Director Sandy Close.
Periyakoil, Austerlic and Close were joined by a host of medicine experts, social workers, researchers, patients, and even media practitioners, who all shared their vast knowledge on Palliative Care and the wide range of issues it covers.
The program was organized by NAM Ethnic Elders Newsbeat Director Paul Kleyman, and was sponsored by the California Health Care Foundation.
Additional support for the event was provided by the Stanford In-reach for Successful Aging through Education (iSAGE) project.
Journalism fellows included media practitioners, who represented a wide range of ethnic groups: Latino, African American, Korean, Chinese, Slavic, and Filipino who came from different locations in California: Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose and Redwood City.
Quality-of-life at end-of-life
A certain segment of Palliative Care includes Hospice Care. Hospice Care is a subsection of Palliative Medicine where in-facility or in-home care is given to patients with terminal illnesses and are at the last six months or less of their lives.
For most people ,who are uninitiated to this concept of allowing patients to “die well,” Hospice is viewed in a negative light. They often misconstrue Hospice as “a place where you will be sent to die.”
According to Austerlic, Hospice is a field that focuses on addressing and managing pain and symptoms so that the patient can have a comfortable end-of-life.
She clarified that Hospice is not a place. It is effectively a subsection of Palliative Care, where a team of medical professionals can come to a patient’s home to provide care when he or she is at end-of-life or is given a diagnosis that he or she is at the last six months (or less) of her life.
“For Hospice, it’s not about how you want to die, it’s about how you want to live until the end,” Austerlic explained. Hospice allows a patient a certain degree of comfort and pain relief that gives them the chance to enjoy the company of their loved ones as much as possible during his or her end-of-life.
For some patients, the best quality-of-life may include being able to attend a daughter’s wedding, going to a grandson’s graduation, seeing a granddaughter celebrate her 18th birthday, or going on a trip to Disneyland with the kids.
By undergoing Hospice Care, patients have the opportunity to enjoy these experiences, and are given enough comfort and pain relief to enjoy the love and care of family and friends, while waiting for the inevitable end.
Difference between Palliative Care from Hospice
NAM also wanted to address the confusion between Palliative Care and Hospice at the fellowship program.
Experts weighed in on the broad topic and provided their own unique insights on the sensitive topic of quality of life, symptom management, and end-of-life situations.
A key distinguishing factor between Palliative Care and Hospice Care is is the terminal illness diagnosis.
A patient may receive Palliative Care (or pain and symptom management), regardless of being terminally ill or not. But a patient will only receive Hospice Care when at end-of-life.
Hospice strictly deals with end-of-life situations where patients are commonly terminally ill; and Palliative Care is more on a broader scale and a longer span of time – regardless of whether a patient is on the last six months of life or not.
It can be said that all Hospice Care is Palliative Care, but not all Palliative Care is Hospice Care.
(www.asianjournal.com)
(LA Weekend July 13-16, 2013 Sec A pg.8)
