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Hospices and human dignity

Lynne Connor

October 7 is a unified day of action to celebrate and support hospice and palliative care worldwide

WHAT IS hospice care? It's not a subject we talk about every day — but here we are at the beginning of the 21st century and still people are dying in avoidable pain and distress. The word hospice was first connected with the care of the dying in 1842 when Madame Jeanne Garnier founded the Dames de Calvaire in Lyon, France. The first modern hospice, St Christopher's in South London, opened in 1967. Since then hospice care has become a worldwide movement. It has enabled people to change the way they approach death and dying and is possibly the greatest social innovation in living memory.

In hospices multi-disciplinary teams offer palliative care, giving not only freedom from pain but also calm, peace, and dignity. As human lives come to an end hospices care for the whole person. Their objective is to meet all of a person's needs — physical, emotional, social, and spiritual. Not only do they care for the person who is dying, they also care for those who love them — their families.

This care is a philosophy that begins with the affirmation of death as a natural part of life. Values of respect, choice, empowerment, holistic care, and compassion are paramount. Within hospices a range of services can be found — pain control, symptom relief, skilled nursing care, counselling, complementary therapies, spiritual care, physiotherapy, reminiscence, art, music, beauty treatment, and bereavement support. What must be remembered is that nearly half of all people who enter hospices return home once symptom relief and pain control have been balanced. All this care is free of charge and is provided on individual needs and personal choice.

Does South India feature in this worldwide movement? Well, yes it does! The Jeevodaya Hospice in Mathur village, 12km north of Chennai, is run by a very special team of committed individuals who collectively provide free palliative care for up to 50 in-patients with advanced forms of cancer. They are led by one of their founding members, the inspirational Sister-in-Charge, Sister Lalitha Theresa FCC. Jeevodaya is a non-religious charitable and non-profit organisation, which was established in August 1991. It's one of the most challenging humanitarian projects launched in South India.

Jeevodaya is not alone here. The Dean Foundation, a non-profit medical charitable trust based in the Aspirain Garden Colony, Kilpauk, Chennai, offers palliative care to out-patients. It also offers home care, information services, and complementary therapies.

Why do I write this article now? October 7, 2006 is a unified day of action to celebrate and support Hospice and Palliative Care worldwide. It would be wrong not to highlight the work of so many passionate and committed people, both professionals and those who give their services voluntarily, where ever they are.

Why do I write on hospice care? My mother was cared for in a U.K. hospice when her cancer became too advanced for me to care for her in our family home. I too was supported and cared for as together my mother and I made our journey down memory lane to the end of her life. It was hospice staff who cared for my six-year-old daughter when my husband was recalled for duty in the Gulf. Cancer is no respector of who and whom it strikes. My father-in-law was also cared for in a hospice in the U.K. Dedicated staff made sure my mother-in-law was cared for too as her husband battled with cancer.

Hospice teams are very special, dedicated people who also help those family members left behind when final good-byes have been said. There is a light as we go forward because hospice care doesn't stop with the death of the patient. Caring goes on and on until one day those being cared for find the strength to help others just like them.

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