Chronic Illness ~ Life-Limiting Illness ~ Life-Threatening Illness ~ Palliative Care Support

Holistic care of the chronically ill, life-limited, life-threatened or palliative-care-receiving child, young person or adult and their family, helps their journey through illness and into potential recovery, death or bereavement to be undertaken far more easily.

Chronically ill, life-limited, life-threatened or palliative-care-receiving children, young people, adults and their family members experience many challenging issues during the course and changing phases of their conditions. They therefore require sensitive, practical and ongoing support. In providing holistic care, there are a number of intrinsic areas where professional psychological assessment, support or intervention can be very helpful. This is particularly so for ill children, young people and their siblings, who are sometimes ‘kept out of the picture’, by well-meaning parents and practitioners.

‘Palliative Care’ is defined by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as, ‘An approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing the problems associated with life-threatening illness, through the prevention and relief of suffering by means of early identification and impeccable assessment and treatment of pain and other problems, physical, psychological and spiritual.’