Women Today

Today our friends at Unity hospice, which has been offering comfort and care for more than three decades, offer information on how palliative care, which strives to reduce the severity of disease symptoms, can help people with heart failure:

February is recognized as Heart Month across the nation and it’s no wonder -- heart failure touches many lives.

Almost 5 million people in the United States have heart failure and more than 600,000 people develop new heart failure each year.

Heart failure itself is not a disease, but rather a weakening of the heart caused by other diseases and conditions (including high blood pressure, coronary heart disease, diabetes and cardiomyopathy) that have damaged the heart.

Although people can experience different levels of severity, heart failure can leave people seriously weakened with multiple debilitating symptoms.

Common symptoms of heart failure include weakness, lightheadedness, or dizziness; a rapid heart rate even while resting; fatigue; a change in skin tone; retention of body fluids; weight gain; nausea and poor appetite; shortness of breath; and pain and pressure in the chest.

A diagnosis of heart failure doesn’t mean there aren’t ways in which individuals can be supported to better manage these effects and the impact they have on their lives. Palliative care is designed to offer that support.

Nationwide, one of the leading diagnoses of patients who choose palliative care is heart failure. More and more families are turning to palliative care because it provides support that goes above and beyond that traditionally provided to patients in hospitals.

Psychosocial and spiritual suffering brought on by multidrug regimes, while out of the cardiologist’s typical scope of treatment, for example, can be addressed by the social workers and chaplains who are part of the palliative program’s interdisciplinary team.

Without the need for a physician’s referral to the program, palliative care provides patients and families with the choice to seek support when it is appropriate for them.

As conditions worsen, people with heart failure often find themselves making more frequent visits to the hospital. Annually, there are 1 million hospitalizations due to heart failure. It is also the leading admission for the elderly population.

Palliative care can help coordinate care for these individuals, ensuring that their hospital visits are less frequent.

Care can include help with medication administration, dietary and fluid intake, coordination of daily weigh-ins and physician visits, in-home assistance with bath care and household management, and oversight of home safety when weakness can make tripping hazards more prevalent and mobilization aids necessary.

As designed, palliative care helps heart failure patients gain an improved quality of life and put their focus on better managing the diseases and conditions that have affected their heart.