There may come a time when health professionals determine that an individual’s condition is unlikely to improve. This could be due to a prognosis of six months or less or the inevitable progression of a chronic health condition. However, this does not mean that no further actions are required or that nothing more can be done.
On the contrary, it is crucial that individuals with such diagnoses receive compassionate and expert care. An experienced comfort carer can provide pain relief, peace, and dignity to those with chronic, life limiting conditions.
Take a look at our guide to complex live-in care for more information on caring for individuals with complicated, chronic health needs.
What is comfort care?
Comfort care is a type of short-term care, typically administered as part of palliative care or end of life care at home. When healthcare professionals start to move individuals on from curative or life-prolonging treatments, they switch to focusing on the comfort of the person and shift towards comfort care.
This form of care is geared towards symptom and pain management and improving quality of life. Appropriate care during this stage of life is essential as it ensures that individuals do not have to face unnecessary pain, discomfort, and loss of dignity at this difficult time.
Comfort care focuses on managing symptoms, offering:
- Pain relief
- Assistance with breathing difficulties
- Skin and wound care
- Help with emotional and psychological needs
- Management of body temperature
- Support with fatigue
- Help with eating and drinking
When might comfort care be useful?
Comfort care branches off from both end of life care and palliative care. The difference between palliative care and end of life care is that with palliative care an individual is possibly in the early stages of diagnosis and is still undergoing life-prolonging treatment for their condition. End of life care is typically administered in the later stages, once the condition has progressed beyond treatment.
In both cases, comfort care is a useful service, offering support with symptoms, pain management, and ensuring that individuals can live their lives to the fullest, right until the end.
Whilst the nature of progressive health conditions and terminal illnesses impacts an individual’s ability to enjoy their life due to symptoms increasing in severity, comfort care does have its uses. Experienced comfort carers can help with symptoms and pain management, as well as taking care of other tasks around the home. This leaves your loved one to fill the time they have left with more enjoyable activities.
What does comfort care involve?
Comfort care mainly involves managing the symptoms and pain relief of individuals with life limiting health conditions. However, comfort carers can provide much more in the way of assistance, ensuring that your loved one is not concerned over daily tasks or struggling with personal care.
Comfort care services typically involve:
- Pain relief support
- Symptom management
- Assistance with personal care
- Help getting in and out of bed
- Mobility support
- Transportation and accompaniment to appointments and social events
- Light housekeeping
- Meal preparation
- Facilitating hobbies and interests
- Companionship
How a comfort carer could help?
A comfort carer can provide comprehensive services that go beyond simply dealing with physical discomfort, such as pain and symptom management.
The diagnosis of a life-limiting condition can bring about considerable emotional distress, as coming to terms with our own mortality is a difficult undertaking. Whilst family and friends can offer support along this journey, it can be challenging for them to comprehend that their loved one is nearing the end of their life. Their own distress may affect their ability to offer appropriate care and impartial emotional support to their loved ones.
Comfort carers can breach the gap, offering emotional support by administering compassionate and understanding care. With years of experience in comfort care under their belts, these professionals can approach sensitive subjects with tact and awareness of the situation.
A comfort carer can also help by coordinating with your loved one’s healthcare professionals ensuring that any medications are prescribed and picked up on time and administered according to their instructions. Having a knowledgeable carer acting in between the person being cared for, their family and the healthcare professionals, is useful to all parties, enabling complete and comprehensive care.
Finally, comfort care can incorporate companion care, as a perfectly matched carer will reside in your loved one’s home, providing emotional support and someone to talk to. They may even share common interests and hobbies, which will make spending time together a pleasurable experience and ultimately raise morale.
Get in touch
Should your loved one need comfort care to help them live out their time with dignity and peace, comfort care services can provide great assistance and relief. Trinity Homecare will find a compassionate comfort carer for your loved one, so that they can experience a better quality of life, even in the most trying of circumstances.
You can rest assured that your loved one will benefit from the highest standard of comfort care and support as Trinity is ranked amongst the top 4% of all nationwide care companies in England.
If you would like to learn more about arranging comfort care services for your loved one, simply get in touch with our friendly and professional care team.
Arranging live-in COPD care with Trinity is simple. Just follow these five steps:
- Call our care team
- Undergo a free, no-obligation consultation to discuss your care needs and arrange a care assessment
- After the assessment, a plan of care is created
- A well suited carer is found and placed
- Care can be adapted at any time
