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	Not Quite a Blog; Latest News and Thoughts in Palliative Care and Death & Dying Accepting Palliative Care Advance Directives Deciding DNR Status Finding Palliative Care Top 10 Myths of Palliative Care Visiting in Palliative Care - Give the Gift of Your Time Finding Care Every country has a different way of offering medical services and this includes palliative and hospice care. This section will cover different countries as I find the information. For Caregivers: Find articles and links about ways to help care for your loved one and how to care for yourself. Physical Issues: When someone is reaching the end-of-life, there are many phsyical issues that need to be addressed. Care for Children at End-of-Life Children also need palliative care at the end-of-life After Death Family & Friends Find articles and links for issues that face the family and friends of people who are in palliative care. The Team Meet the people who make up the palliative care team. Here, you will find articles for the layperson and the professional. Palliative Care Around the World History of Palliative Care Read about the history of palliative care and the people who made it happen My blog, Marijke: nurse turned writer, on health and writing topics:

Physical Issues in Palliative Care

There are many issues that face someone in the final stages of life. They include pain management, nausea, and various other problems. The role of the palliative care team is to help relieve these problems as much as possible, to allow the patient to have a better quality-of-life at this stage.

In this section, you will find articles and links to help address these issues and to you understand the therapies and their effects.

Physical Issues - a breakdown of the various issues faced by people at the end-of-life

Coma - care when a patient is in a coma

Constipation - the importance and prevention of constipation at the end-of-life

Fatigue

Skin Breakdown (Sores)

Managing Pressure Sores

Scales for Measuring Pain

Over-the-Counter Medications for Pain Relief

Dealing with pain can be very difficult; one of the biggest issues in getting help with pain management is being able to talk about your pain with your doctor.

This audio link How to talk with your physician about pain is a 7-minute tutorial, which was taken from The Handbook for Mortals. Heart-to-Heart: Caring for the Dying, is an audio documentary about end-of-life care. The GrowthHouse.org has made available this 18-minute program on pain control, discussing good pain management.

Did you realize that according to a new report that was published Sept. 28, 2007, up to 80% of people who are dying from cancer do NOT have access to proper pain control? The authors of the study write: "around 80% of the world’s cancer sufferers have no access to analgesics and that while the majority of pains can be controlled, an estimated 7% of all people in the world suffer cancer pain that could be relieved but is not." You can find more study findings in the New Report Exposes Wide-Scale Lack of Access to Essential Analgesics

The same information is available in this press release geared more to the general public, 7% of World Population Suffering Unnecessary Cancer Pain.