A nine-year veteran volunteer at St John of God Community Hospice in Murdoch says the benefits of Palliative Care, seen and unseen, are extensive.
By Anthony Barich
Patients develop an enhanced sense of self-worth through the experience of palliative care, contrary to claims from euthanasia advocates that palliative care is the end of the road and undignified, long-term hospice volunteer Dale Henshaw said.
Mr Henshaw, who has seen over 1800 admissions during the past nine years at St John of God Murdoch’s Hospice centre, said many patients enter determined not to be kept alive any more than necessary, but after experiencing palliative care they become determined to “live until they die”.
Addressing the 18 July Right to Life Association annual dinner at the Esplanade Hotel in Como, Mr Henshaw also dispelled several myths pushed by euthanasia advocates about palliative and hospice care, including:
– Being referred to palliative care means the doctors have given up on you. This is untrue, he said, as the doctor cares enough about the person he or she is treating to want them to receive “the very best care aimed at improving quality of life”.
– You lose your dignity when you have to depend on others to do everything for you. While it is “traumatic to lose control of your personal hygiene”, Mr Henshaw said, most patients “get an enhanced sense of their worth when so much is done by so many to make the quality of their living as good as possible”.
– Dying usually involves unbearable pain so they dope you up like a zombie. In his experience patients seem “very normally alert and active” he told those attending the dinner. Even euthanasia advocate Dr Philip Nitschke, who used to include “unendurable pain when dying” as one of the major reasons to support legal euthanasia, now acknowledges that medical progress in pain treatment has eliminated this as a significant factor.
– Going into a hospice is the final step. Over 60 per cent of the 1800 admissions he’s seen have been discharged home. Many, he said, are “completely independent, often on the phone and their computer conducting their affairs.
“Even if they have a long-term, life-threatening condition and they were probably there for symptom control, they are often back to their everyday activities, including work, before very long,” he said.
Mr Henshaw has volunteered at Murdoch Community Hospice since euthanasia was being debated in WA nine years ago when Perth doctor Daryl Stephens was charged with the murder of Frieda Hayes in a hospital in February 2000.
He said given that receiving palliative care is generally the first time most have experienced it, anxiety and concern about knowing what is happening and what can be done is a “very real factor, both for the patient and the family”.
“A very significant feature of palliative care is the ready involvement of family and friends. At Murdoch, family and friends have access to the patient at all times, including boarding arrangements,” he said.
The Murdoch Community Hospice has 20 beds, and makes approximately 450 admissions each year. Patients are referred to the Hospice by their doctor or specialist. Reasons for their admissions include:
– to address the symptoms and return home;
– re-admission to revise the symptom control;
– to enable respite for the carers, (often they are family members);
– for terminal care.
A typical stay for the majority of admissions would be around seven to 14 days, he said.