Suffering may be defined as the distress associated with events that threaten the intactness or wholeness of the person.
In clinical practice, it is helpful to have a simple classification of the causes of suffering, so that the complex problems presented by patients can be disentangled, in order to provide comprehensive palliation and relief of suffering:
- → Pain
- → Other physical symptoms
- → Psychological
- → Social
- → Cultural
- → Spiritual
The components of palliative care, or the aspects of care and treatment that need to be addressed, follow logically from the causes of suffering. Each has to be addressed in the provision of comprehensive palliative care, making a multidisciplinary approach to care a necessity.
Treatment of pain and physical symptoms are addressed first because it is not possible to deal with the psychosocial aspects of care if the patient has unrelieved pain or other distressing physical symptoms.
The various causes of suffering are interdependent and unrecognized or unresolved problems relating to one cause may cause or exacerbate other aspects of suffering
- → unrelieved pain can cause or aggravate psychosocial problems
- ☛ these psychosocial components of suffering will not be treated successfully until the pain is relieved
- → pain may be aggravated by unrecognized or untreated psychosocial problems
- ☛ no amount of well prescribed analgesia will relieve the patient’s pain until the psychosocial problems are addressed
- → A multidisciplinary approach to assessment and treatment is mandatory
- ☛ failure to do this often results in unrelieved pain and unrelieved psychosocial suffering
- ☛ no one individual can deal with the many problems encountered in palliative care and an integrated team is essential.
Source:
The IAHPC Manual of Palliative Care 3rd Edition
https://hospicecare.com/what-we-do/publications/manual-of-palliative-care/
