What does high-quality palliative care look like?
Seeking palliative care services is one of the most significant choices a family will make. When seeking end of life at home care for a loved one, you want to have certainty that they are not only having their clinical needs fulfilled, but are being shown as much compassion and kindness as you show them. Above all, the best palliative care should provide a feeling of peace and calm at what can feel like an overwhelming and emotional time.
Palliative care is provided to individuals who have serious or life-limiting illnesses, including those who have been given a terminal diagnosis. This means that the focus of the care moves from treatment to symptom control, for example pain management. It also enables people to have consistency of carers, offering emotional reassurance to them and their family. Whilst it is usually only associated with end of life care, palliative care can be introduced earlier to manage symptoms, improve comfort, and support emotional wellbeing. Beyond that, we at Airmid offer a holistic approach, focusing on both the physical and emotional needs of individuals.
Why choose Airmid for palliative care?
In addition to providing clinical care, our carers are trained to take a proactive approach to spot symptoms and be alert to deterioration, therefore minimising pain and discomfort as much as possible. By building up a relationship and tailoring care to each individual, the Airmid team are able to offer them the best level of care throughout their time together.
Compassion & clinical excellence
We believe that the best palliative care is delivered with compassion and kindness. Backed by strong governance and clinical oversight, our carers are trained to high healthcare standards. When working with someone new, they are given patient specific training to ensure that that person is getting the exact care they need. Your loved one’s carer can also contact the on call clinical team if any kind of escalation or further support is needed. In addition, we work with other relevant groups such as consultants and GPs as part of a holistic framework to ensure that individuals are given all the support they need.
Using technology to provide peace of mind
To provide you with further reassurance, we use an app called Log My Care to log and track care. This app is used to track, in real time, the care your loved one is receiving, offering the best possible assurance to family. All visits are tracked by GPS so you can know exactly when a carer has visited. The information that our carers capture can be tailored so you can get reassurance on exactly what concerns you. This can include all sorts of information regarding the visit such as heart rate, meals eaten, and temperature among many others.
What does this mean for the individual and their families?
By opting for home care services, family members can be just that; family. By letting our trained carers look after your loved one’s clinical needs, you no longer need to be anxious or feel the emotional weight of trying to do this yourselves. Rather than needing to focus on being the primary caregiver or organising visits to other clinical settings, family members can really have quality time with their loved one in a setting that is comfortable and familiar to everyone. By avoiding the upheaval and disruption of moving to a different clinical setting, individuals can stay in established routines that work for them. This could mean getting to take their medication whenever works best for them or simply being able to watch TV whenever they want. Choosing to receive palliative care at home allows people to retain a degree of choice and independence and restore some feelings of comfort and dignity at a time when it can feel like those have been taken away.
Louise Paul, Airmid Staffing’s Registered Manager, has over 10 years’ experience in home care and has experience of managing CQC ‘Good’ rated providers whilst striving toward an ‘Outstanding’ rating.
info@airmidstaffing.co.uk
02034346040