End of life care services are a major part of my community. The question boils down to what resources are actually available if you are terminally ill and what determines who has access or who doesn’t. In actuality the criteria is very easy to determine.

 Why Palliative Care?

Dr. George Giokas is a current doctor that leads palliative care consultation service at Ellis Hospital in Schenectady, NY. While he was in medical school he received no training to tell him how to tell patients they were dying. So a result, in 2010 this collaboration was launched between Ellis Hospital and The Community Hospice, and this serves the Capital Region. A group consisting of a nurse, social worker, and pastoral care staff work together to evaluate a patient and to help them understand about their illnesses and overall help facilitate their lives and what is wrong. 

In 2011 Former Governor David Patterson signed the New York Palliative Care Information Act which forced physicians to offer patients that has a terminal illness information and advice on their options regarding palliative and end of life care. Additionally information and counseling would not be provided to patients who did not want it, but it helps to have them at least have this as an option. 

Too Much for The Physician?

Interestingly, I came across an idea that spoke of an “unwarranted intrusion into the physician-patient relationship”. The idea behind it was that this intrusion could lead to unintended health consequences for the patient. In addition the question of “is it too much to ask”, some individuals think that by providing legal service it puts a stress on the physicians to work beyond the realm of what they are trained to do. But perhaps this speaks back to the problem Dr. George Giokas spoke of before when reflecting on his training.

Another interesting idea behind it was the idea of a patient’s attitude playing a key role in factoring how they will confront, endure, and battle a chronic illness. If a doctor is required to provide information on all end of life options to patients, this could belittle the belief of the patient in beating the disease. It could also end up hindering the relationship of the patient and the physician as now their confidence in their ability gets undermined as well. So perhaps leaving these discussions up to the discretion of the patient, family, and physician is beneficial in these cases. However, these conversations or at least a sort of training on this issue, is important for physicians to deliver quality palliative care. 

What About You?

So where does this leave you? The Capital Region has several hospitals that have palliative care to help improve the quality of life of any individual including Albany Medical Center, St. Mary’s Hospital (Amsterdam), Glenns Falls Hospital, St. Peter’s Hospital, , Stratton VA Hospital, and Ellis Hospital. Any of these hospitals can provide palliative care to individuals that fall under these categories. Palliative care is used to improve quality of life. Ellis Medicine provides a palliative care program for patients with caner and other life threatening diseases with a focus on alleviating pain and bettering the quality of life. Some examples that this program helps families deal with include pain and symptom management, coordination of care, home care and hospice, treatment decision making, and emotional and spiritual support. All of these are very key in being able to deliver these messages and have these important, end of life conversations. Overall, in this community palliative care is appropriate at any age and can be provided at the same time as other treatments.