Are We Death Phobic? BY Yogesh Shah, M.P.H., M.D., FAAFP Let me share some good news and some bad news. The good news is that due to advances in medicine there has never been a better time to be alive if what you want to do is to just be alive. The bad news is that in spite of advances in medicine the death rate for humans still remains 100%. Death is inevitable but a good death is not. In general, we are death illiterate, death phobic and we are unprepared for death. A few decades ago, living with a chronic illness, breast cancer or any form of cancer was not common. Humans died suddenly and often anxiety and mental stress of the illness. Palliative care is appropriate at any age, during any stage of an insidious illness and should be provided along with your curative treatment. If you are not quite sure what palliative care means, you are not alone. Too often, when people hear the term palliative care referenced with anything, they associate it with dying. In reality, true palliative care is about living well. Living better. Living based on our values, what we find sacred, and how we want to write the chapters of our lives — whether it’s the last chapter . . . or the last three. It’s about better quality of life. Palliative care assists patients and family to make a commitment to an improved quality of life. It focuses on hope and goals. It sheds light on life going forward when it seems there is only darkness due to the disease process. unexpectedly. Medical care and treatment options have changed how we live with chronic conditions, including cancers. We get so busy treating the conditions that we forget about quality of life. We need to focus on the quality of our life along with managing our illness. Quality of life is a sum total of our total health, happiness and vitality. We don’t need for the disease we are fighting to define us. Palliative care is a rapidly growing medical field aimed at improving the quality of life for both the patient and their family members. Palliative care focuses on providing relief from the symptoms like peripheral neuropathy, nausea, bone pain, physical stress, A report from the Patient-Centered Health Advisory Council, in response to House File 393, showed that there is a need for increased education, awareness and access to palliative care in the state, and the need for palliative care will continue to grow as Iowa’s aging population continues to grow. The PatientCentered Health Advisory Council is a legislativelydirected council within the Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH). Palliative care and hospice care differ from one another. Hospice is a subset of palliative care. Palliative care does not have any eligibility requirements; whereas with hospice, the physician must certify that the individual is unlikely to live more than 6 months and
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