Home Health Care Participates in the 2011 Palliative Care Symposium

Home Health Care strives to provide patients and their families with the best care possible. In the spirit of promoting education and awareness, Home Health Care’s very own Dr. Mary Jean Villareal-Guno helped organize the Palliative Care Symposium on Symptom Management last November 4, 2011.

Dr. Villareal-Guno, also the Assistant Secretary of Hospice Philippines, is one of the country’s movers and shakers in hospice and palliative care. As the President of Home Health Care, Dr. Villareal-Guno aims to lead a much-needed paradigm shift in Philippine health care, which is why she has actively participated in the movement to promote palliative medicine in the country.

After all, caring for loved ones and patients with life-limiting illnesses is especially challenging, considering the many questions that it provokes. Is life to be preserved at all costs? When does medical treatment do more harm than good? In terms of life support and resuscitation, where does a physician draw the line?

Hospice Philippines, in cooperation with Asia Pacific Hospice Care Network and Hospis Malaysia, presented the Palliative Care Symposium on Symptom Management. The symposium aimed to highlight the important role of palliative and hospice care in the Philippine setting. It also aims to answer hard-hitting questions, such as those posed above.

The symposium, held at the University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital (UP-PGH) and hosted by the Section of Supportive, Hospice, and Palliative Medicine of the Department of Family and Community Medicine, presented speakers on palliative medicine from Malaysia and Australia.

Hospice Philippines, in its aim to upgrade the knowledge and skills of healthcare providers in pain and symptom management, is actively disseminating information nationwide on what hospice care and palliative medicine are all about. The organization has also tasked itself to provide a discussion platform for healthcare providers and government or private institutions, as there are many ethical, financial, and paradigm-related issues that still need to be explored, especially in the Philippines.

Palliative care is a relatively novel approach in medicine, because most clinicians are accustomed to always aiming for a cure even when there is none. For most healthcare professionals, the possibility of death is fought to the end, sometimes to the detriment of the patient’s health.

To help address the above issue, palliative medicine is now being promoted worldwide. Although its roots can be traced several decades back, it is only recently that palliative care is finally finding its own niche. Home Health Care was then established, remaining a strong proponent of palliative medicine in the country.

Instinctively, physicians want their patients to get well. But what do they do if their patients are dying? A lot of doctors will offer every treatment option possible, even if these may do more harm than good. Therein lies the dilemma: when does a physician stop fighting death?

A typical example of a medical dilemma was discussed by Dr. Jan Maree Davis. “Patients with end-stage renal disease are offered dialysis most of the time. However, they should also be offered the option of palliative care,” Dr. Davis, the Area Director of St. George Hospital’s Palliative Care Service in Sydney, said with conviction.

“What quality of life is there for a sixty-year-old with many illnesses who has to undergo dialysis three times a week, in which his life revolves around dialysis?” Dr. Davis asks an audience of physicians and other health professionals.

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