Palliative care focuses on improving quality of life for patients with serious illnesses. A cannabis prescription for palliative care may provide relief from pain, nausea, and anxiety, improving physical comfort and emotional well-being. Cannabis can offer a holistic approach to palliative care, enhancing the patient’s overall quality of life.
Palliative Care: What is it?
A comprehensive method that helps patients and their families cope with the hardships of a life-threatening illness achieved through controlling the physical, psychological, and emotional symptoms of severe diseases or ailments. This may be expressed through providing pain treatment, symptom relief, and emotional support. Focusing on giving patients comfort and dignity, regardless of their prospects.
When Should Palliative Care be Made Available to Someone?
Palliative care is made accessible when you or a family member is diagnosed with a serious or terminal illness, such as heart failure, advanced dementia, or cancer. It emphasises easing symptoms, discomfort, and emotional suffering while enhancing the overall quality of life. This type of care can be administered alongside curative therapy at any stage of the illness to provide patients and their families with all-encompassing support and comfort. Palliative care’s purpose is to offer:
- Details regarding the individual and their family
- A comprehensive and accurate evaluation of a person’s requirements
- Symptom management
- Assistance in terms of psychology, society, religion, and practicality
- Open lines of dialogue with the individual and their relations
Signs of Palliative Care
The symptoms that a patient goes through during a life-threatening disease vary depending on the situation. However, typical signs may include:
- Tiredness Pain
- Diminished appetite
- Constipation
- Respiratory fluids
- Nausea and diarrhoea
- Breathing difficulty
- Uncertainty and agitation
- Tiredness and weariness
- Muscle tremor or paralysis
When Will This Sort of Care Start?
Because the purpose of palliative care is to decrease stress, symptoms, and pain, it can begin at any moment. This sort of care can be utilised in combination with curative therapy from the time of diagnosis, during the course of the disease, and even beyond death. The goal is to improve comfort and well-being while addressing bodily, emotional, and spiritual needs. The objective is to manage symptoms with as few medicines as possible. The type of medicine, such as medical marijuana, to be taken is determined by the severity or mechanism of the ailment.
When first-line medicines are unable to provide sufficient clinical relief, medicinal cannabis products may be taken into consideration.
Palliative Care Treatment
The treatment given is guided by the five phases of palliative care. These consist of:
- Putting up a customised strategy to make sure that all emotional, mental, and spiritual requirements are met
- Giving support on an emotional and spiritual level to get ready for whatever may come
- Early-stage care, which focuses on meeting urgent needs,
- Late-stage care, where additional long-term strategies are implemented. Aside from offering assistance during a loss, one may also provide support for relatives throughout their care.
Medicinal Cannabis and Palliative Care
Limited information is currently available regarding the utilisation of medical cannabis within the realm of palliative care. However, there has been a surge in curiosity surrounding the medicinal application of cannabis following its legalisation for medical purposes in 2018. In cases where conventional medications have proven ineffective in alleviating symptoms, medical cannabis could serve as a potential alternative for individuals grappling with this condition.
Easy and Private Cannabis Prescription Assessment
MARUCANNA makes the private cannabis assessment process fast and easy. Start with a free eligibility check, answer a short questionnaire, and receive an instant decision. Eligible patients will have a virtual consultation with a doctor.