Spreading Sparkles and Hope - Cansupport
20 September, 2024
CanSupport is a group of Palliative Care experts committed to maximising quality of life with cancer in a meaningful and compassionate manner, whilst fully respecting the dignity of the individual. We follow a patient-centered philosophy where patient care preferences and goals are central to care provision.
Palliative care is a health care specialty that is both a philosophy of care and an organized, highly structured system for delivering care to people with life-threatening or debilitating illness like cancer, from diagnosis till death and then into bereavement care for the family. Using a multidisciplinary approach, palliative care enhances quality of life, and may positively influence the course of the illness. It is applicable early in the course of illness along with disease modifying therapies like chemotherapy or radiation therapy, allowing patients to live well. The holistic (medical, nursing and psychosocial care of patients in their homes keeps them comfortable, functional and positively engaged till the end of their lives.
In India, around 80% cancer patients have advanced disease at stage III and IV. The trauma of advanced and terminal cancer can be devastating for the patient and the family. They have nowhere to turn for support once cancer treatments fail or they are declared ‘beyond medical help’.
Our health care systems, not equipped to offer any meaningful ongoing care to alleviate their agony, are not able to meet such needs, condemning patients to spend their last days in unremitting pain and despair. The family too, struggling with a multitude of personal and socioeconomic stresses, often falls apart. Overall, overwhelming physical and emotional burdens result in the poorest quality of life of patients followed by agonizing death and appalling bereavement adjustments in the family.
Coming to the end of life is an intensely personal event that can be emotionally and physically demanding. Patients and their families often need particularly responsive kinds of help during this phase that ensures good pain and symptom control, comfort, sensitive communication, clear information and a coherent package of care. These measures can help people live meaningfully until the end of life and support their families afterwards. Such care provided at home is also the most practical option for such patients – saving them precious time, energy and resources. Government healthcare institutions here have no palliative care facility for these patients and they are referred into our care
CanSupport runs the largest home based palliative care program in the country which ensures access to free palliative care to patients with advanced cancer in their homes. Living well and leaving well are the critical milestones for the beneficiaries with significant impact on all parameters of quality of life, be it physical, functional, emotional, interpersonal, or transcendental
CanSupport’s home based palliative care program has received national and international recognition as well as the prestigious Public Health Champion Award by the World Health Organisation.
Our history is long and distinguished and now spans 27 years, during which time our contribution to the development of Palliative Care services can be seen across North India. Our wide-ranging programs are designed to help patients of all ages and cancers throughout their cancer journey; right from the day of diagnosis, across all curative therapies and as a continuum of care adapting to the unique needs in case cancer progresses into its terminal phase. The support extends even after the death of the patient through bereavement and rehabilitative support to the families.
Our highly skilled teams of doctors, nurses, counsellors and physiotherapists bring our care to the doorstep of patients too sick to travel and make regular visits providing medical, nursing and psychosocial support. We have licenses to procure and dispense oral morphine, thereby saving those under our care from unnecessary pain. Patients and their families also have access to Outpatient Clinics, Mobile Clinic, Tele-Consultation, Cancer Helpline, Day Care, Peer Support and Counselling Services, Patient Navigation, Resource Facilitation as well as Bereavement and Rehabilitation Support.
Our programmatic approach has a significant impact on of quality of life with practical ways in which patients can regain a sense of control and self-worth. It also empowers families to make informed decisions around goals of care, equips them with caregiving and coping skills and organizes resources to make a challenging journey manageable, meaningful and memorable for everyone.
Our Palliative Care Model serves as a source of learning for many individuals and organizations focused on improving the quality of life of people with cancer and other serious illnesses.
While some organisations have drawn their inspiration and early ideas for development from CanSupport, others have been trained through capacity building collaborations.
Help us fill a critical gap in services for the care of cancer patients, especially those who are poor or destitute. Our services are aimed at the less privileged and are therefore entirely free of charge.
To donate, please visit https://cansupport.org/donate/
For more details, please visit: www.cansupport.org
