According to Cancer Council Victoria, one in two people will receive a cancer diagnosis before the age of 85. As a residential palliative care specialist, we can tell you that cancer is one of the most common diseases that brings Victorians into our care.
A cancer diagnosis can be highly disorienting for our residents and their loved ones. We know, from experience, how challenging it can be to figure out your next steps. We’ve written this guide to help you find your feet, explain how palliative care can help you, and suggest some practical next steps.
We’re going to explain:
- How palliative care services can help residents with cancer
- When you should begin to consider engaging palliative services
- How to begin advance care planning
- How to pay for outpatient or residential palliative treatment
MACG provides residential palliative care for residents with cancer. We’ve been doing this for nearly three decades, so we speak from direct experience. Whether or not you choose to enter our care, we hope this guide makes your journey a little more manageable. Please do not hesitate to get in touch for more advice and guidance.
Put simply: what palliative care is
Palliative treatment aims to improve the quality of life for people with cancer or any other life-limiting illness. It does not aim to cure or slow the spread of cancer. Instead, it’s a holistic treatment that aims to relieve symptoms, manage pain, and support loved ones and carers.
The treatments you will receive in palliative care
As a holistic treatment, supportive and palliative care will tend to your physical, emotional, spiritual, psychological and social needs. Let’s explore what that means.
Physical needs
Cancer is extremely physically taxing, especially as it advances towards its final stages. Its treatments, like chemotherapy, can be just as great of a challenge. You can expect exhaustion, pain, and the loss of sleep and appetite. Your palliative specialist will help you remedy that.
Your medical team will create a pain management plan that can include medical intervention and physical therapy. Their treatments will also help improve your appetite or find alternative solutions to ensure you get the nutrition you need. Medication and therapy can also help stabilise your sleep schedule.
Emotional needs
The emotional fallout of a cancer diagnosis affects all of your family, friends and community to one degree or another.
During your cancer journey and treatment, it’s natural to experience bouts of depression and anxiety, mood swings (including aggression) and memory loss. It’s equally likely that carers will experience depression and anxiety, too.
Your palliative professional will develop a plan to improve your morale and reduce your anxiety and will provide effective resources for your loved ones.
We often encourage loved ones of palliative residents to seek resources through the Carer Gateway, which provides counselling and training packages.
Spiritual needs
Facing one’s mortality is an existential task, and many find counselling from religious authorities to be vitally important. In palliative care, you should have access to regular counselling from an authority of your religion and denomination.
While spiritual care can include religious counselling, it does not need to. Instead, it can be about helping you prepare for death by counselling you on your relationship with yourself and your loved ones.
Social needs
With the goal being to improve quality of life, having a strong community around you is the most important and effective aspect of palliative care.
Your palliative specialist should encourage and enable you to build and maintain a supportive community. This can be with the other residents in your residential care home, but it should certainly include your family and friends.
How palliative care services differ for different types of advanced cancer
Different types of cancer, at different stages and treated with different therapies, affect individuals in unique ways. Palliative care is not a one-size-fits-all solution; it must adapt to create a personalised plan for each individual and continue to adapt as their illness evolves.
Whether you have breast, brain, liver, colon, lung or pancreatic cancer, your care provider will work closely with your oncologist to ensure you receive effective, personalised treatment.
What’s included in MACG’s palliative cancer treatment
We’ve developed our cancer-focused palliative service to provide our residents with everything they need to live with safety, comfort and dignity. At MACG, you can expect:
- 24/7 medical care
- Allied health palliative specialists
- Pain management programs
- Community, emotional and pastoral support
- Work with Cancer Council Australia, Beyond Blue and other cancer charities
How long palliative care for cancer lasts
In our research, we’ve found that residents typically use palliative services in bursts, for a few weeks or months at a time, for as long as their cancer treatment plans last. Our residents find that palliative care can ease their burden and the burden on the loved ones acting as their primary carers when treatment is particularly challenging.
Some residents chose to stay in palliative care for extended periods.
When their cancer advances to its final stages, residents enter hospice care. Hospice and palliative care are nearly identical services, with hospice focused on providing end-of-life care and pain management during the resident’s final months.
Who is included in the palliative care team
Your specialist palliative care service will give you access to a multidisciplinary medical team. Your team can include:
- Oncologists, including your own preferred doctor
- Registered nurses who will provide 24/7 care
- Physical and occupational therapists
- Therapists and psychologists
- Religious counsellors
Depending on your service provider, you can request additional specialists and therapy providers.
Seeking active treatment for cancer while in palliative care
Prospective residents often ask if they’ll be able to continue battling their cancer while in palliative care. We assure you that you will.
Palliative care is provided concurrently with cancer treatments, such as chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and stem cell transplants. Your care provider will work with your primary oncologist and their team to create a palliative plan that complements your treatment.
Advanced care planning for palliative and end-of-life cancer care
It’s a difficult reality to face, but end-stage cancer can debilitate an individual til they’re no longer capable of making medical decisions for themselves. At this point, someone will need to step in. We strongly encourage you to begin advanced care planning as soon as you receive your diagnosis.
Advanced care planning will allow you to define the type of care you want during your treatment. In particular, it allows you to make end-of-life care decisions while you are still cognizant, such as decisions about resuscitation and pain management.
Just as importantly, you can nominate a medical decision-maker who will be the authority if you cannot make decisions yourself. This will spare your loved ones and medical team a great deal of strife. You can nominate a family member or an impartial medical professional.
When we recommend palliative care services for cancer
Palliative care does not have to be an end-of-life treatment. You can avail yourself of palliative services at any point during your treatment and no matter your life expectancy. Remember, the goal is to ease the burden on you and your loved ones — when things get too tough to manage, seek palliative help.
We recommend engaging a palliative service as soon as possible, not to enter their care, but simply to voice your interest and establish a connection should you need them.
How can I pay for palliative care?
Once you’ve found a service provider that you like, they may be able to design a payment plan that suits your abilities. If private residential homes are too expensive for your needs, you may find community palliative care services more affordable and just as effective.
The Australian Government has created the Home Care Packages program, which provides subsidy payments for palliative care residents to make treatment more accessible.
Your payment package will help you cover the daily costs of palliative care and can even help you cover some extras. Once approved for a package, you can use it with any approved private or local community health service provider you choose.
What now?
We recommend taking the following three steps:
- Apply for a Home Care Package
- Begin advanced care planning with your loved ones and medical team
- Make a connection with a palliative care provider specialising in cancer treatment
