VISAKHAPATNAM: Deputy Chief Minister and Minister of Health and Family Welfare Alla Kali Krishna Srinivas on Saturday promised to look into the issue of framing a palliative care policy in the State.
The assurance came when Sneha Sandhya Age Care Foundation chairperson G Sambasiva Rao along with managing trustee and medical director Dr NS Raju called on the Minister and requested for framing palliative care policy for inclusive and easy access to people on the lines of Kerala and Telangana.
Raju explained in detail the palliative care and said though the Indian Medical Council (IMC) had already incorporated palliative care in the syllabus and nursing education to train the doctors and nurses in the palliative care, much more needs to be done through awareness of the palliative care and by having a government policy on the palliative care.
Explaining Sneha Sandha Age Care Foundation’s initiatives to the Minister, Rao said it is the only organisation providing comprehensive palliative care services to the people with life threatening or debilitating illnesses.
From diagnosis till death, the goal is to improve the quality of life of both patients and families by responding to pain and other distressing physical symptoms as well as to provide nursing care and psycho-social and spiritual support. He further said, “Our foundation plays a pivotal role in this area by having inter-disciplinary and multi-dimensional team comprising doctors, nurses, counsellors, social workers and volunteers.”
He also said, “We also provide home-based palliative care services.” The aim of home-based care is to promote, restore and maintain a person’s maximum level of comfort, function and health, including care toward a dignified death. The Deputy CM lauded the initiatives of the foundation.