The Role of Palliative Care and Artificial Feeding in Dementia Care

Palliative care is specialized medical care for people with serious illnesses like Alzheimer's disease.By Bob DeMarcoAlzheimer's Reading RoomPalliative care focuses on providing patients with relief from the symptoms and stress of a serious illness. Palliative is a form of end of life care.The goal of palliative care is to improve the quality of life for patients, caregivers and families.Unfortunately, while the situation is improving, palliative care needs of patients with dementia are sometimes poorly addressed. Symptoms such as pain are sometimes under treated; and, patients are often subjected toburdensome interventions.Hospice CareThere is a need for national guidelines and policies to address more directly the rights of dementia patients in palliative care settings, and for the delivery of appropriate palliative care to this sub-group of patients.What ’s the Difference Between Alzheimer’s and DementiaPalliative CareExperts agree thatpalliative care and hospice careare the most appropriate courses of action for advanced Alzheimer's patients.Use of aggressive medical interventions in the advanced stage, such as CPR, feeding tubes, intravenous antibiotics, even dialysis,are considered by experts to be of little benefit,and may impose a further burden of suffering on the patient."Family members should never be made to feel guilty in making a decision to allow a person with Alzheimer's or a related dementia to die naturally."Healthcare professionals should do more than s...
Source: Alzheimer's Reading Room, The - Category: Neurology Tags: alzheimer's care artificial feeding alzheimers dementia care end of life care memory care memory care facility nursing home palliative care dementia searches related to alzheimer's Source Type: blogs