Introduction to palliative care in low resource settings

Palliative care is an approach to try to improve the quality of life of people with incurable illness and also the quality of life for their families. Many people with chronic respiratory disease such as COPD often live for many years with difficult symptoms. They may be afraid, socially isolated, even socially invisible, and families can find it a huge burden to look after them. They may experience crisis admissions, when their condition worsens.

Palliative care supports people to live as well as possible and to feel comfortable. This approach was initially developed for people with cancer, but increasingly it is being recognise that the needs for people with chronic conditions is just as great, if not greater. It is inequitable that this focus on quality of life is happening for people with cancer but not for people with other chronic conditions.