Palliative home care, for a holistic approach to the patient and family

Introduction: Palliative response to the needs of patients and families, and combine scientific knowledge and skills allied to humanism in order to promote the relief and pre- vention of suffering, enhance the quality of life, comfort. Aim: Demonstrate the importance of palliative care at home, to the satisfaction of patients and families, and implementation of individualized care. Materials and methods: A qualitative and comparative analysis of two cases. One patient with cancer without support of a palliative care team and another patient with neurological degenerative disease being accompanied by a palliative care team at home. Both males, aged between 69-77 years, have common co morbidities (depression, diabetes mellitus and hypertension). Data were collected through observation and resource a data collection instru- ment developed by the researcher with face and content validation by experts in the field of palliative care. Data were collected with informed consent of the participants and in their homes. Results: We observed the high satisfaction of the patient and family that was under support of home palliative care team, with guidance and implement measures and care. The patient participated in all decisions and was aware of the progression of the disease as well as the possible con- sequences. In relation to the patient without palliative care, observed the anger and sadness face the situation, the dif- ficulty in accessing individualized care, and targeted the patient and family needs, to access resources and support technical and financial, and the inability to manage the symptoms and the disease progression. Conclusions: The analysis indicates that the accessibility of palliative care at home, using an approach that imple- ments a systematic monitoring through the co-partnership between teams and patient/family, contribute to improving the quality of life and provide humanized and individual- ized care.