Perinatal Nursing & Adolescent Psychiatry

Adolescent Palliative Care

Palliative Care is a branch of specialized care that deals with the diagnosis and treatment of life threatening chronic illnesses to improve the quality of life of patients and their families. Palliative care team is a group of physicians, nurses, physiotherapists and other specialists who are involved in life support and treatment till end of life. This type of care can treat conditions like pain, depression, shortness of breath, fatigue, constipation, nausea, loss of appetite, difficulty in sleeping, anxiety and symptoms that cause distress. They also give physical, psychosocial and spiritual support to improve the quality of life. Each year nearly 70000 adolescents and young adults are diagnosed with cancer, a disease that involves majority of the psychological conditions mentioned above and therefore palliative care becomes essential.

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