A Turn to Palliative Care
As a pastor I have often gone into a hospital room to visit a patient hooked up to all manner of machines. Though death is imminent technology can keep you alive, sometimes indefinitely. But death is going to happen, so perhaps there is a better way.
Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara is one of many hospitals that have started palliative care teams. These teams focus not on preserving life at all costs, but on easing pain so that death comes naturally and as pain free as possible. It often gives family time to talk with the patient and prepare for death. The team at Cottage Hospital even has a chaplain involved, my friend Mark Gardner. Mark had been a hospice chaplain, but now works with the hospital.
My sense is that this is something that we clergy need to be better aware of so we can help our congregants deal with the issue. The Washington Post has a very informative article today about the turn to palliative care. Of course, part of the reason for this is the supposed cost savings of moving patients from ICU to palliative care. I understand the financial end, but my greatest concern is with the well-being of the patient, who is a congregant, and palliative care seems to be an appropriate response to terminal illness. I know so many people who would rather die than experience excruciating pain that often comes with such times, and thus seek out assisted suicide remedies (or just plain suicide). I'm sympathetic to their feelings, but I believe that palliative care is a more humane and just choice, one that affirms the sanctity of life along with the reality of death.
The WP article can be found here.
Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara is one of many hospitals that have started palliative care teams. These teams focus not on preserving life at all costs, but on easing pain so that death comes naturally and as pain free as possible. It often gives family time to talk with the patient and prepare for death. The team at Cottage Hospital even has a chaplain involved, my friend Mark Gardner. Mark had been a hospice chaplain, but now works with the hospital.
My sense is that this is something that we clergy need to be better aware of so we can help our congregants deal with the issue. The Washington Post has a very informative article today about the turn to palliative care. Of course, part of the reason for this is the supposed cost savings of moving patients from ICU to palliative care. I understand the financial end, but my greatest concern is with the well-being of the patient, who is a congregant, and palliative care seems to be an appropriate response to terminal illness. I know so many people who would rather die than experience excruciating pain that often comes with such times, and thus seek out assisted suicide remedies (or just plain suicide). I'm sympathetic to their feelings, but I believe that palliative care is a more humane and just choice, one that affirms the sanctity of life along with the reality of death.
The WP article can be found here.
Comments
Thanks for the update on Mark. I hope he is using his abundant gifts!