The Assisi Home & Hospice Seminar - 'Palliative Beyond The Hospice'

17 Sep 2005

By Dr Balaji Sadasivan, Senior Minister Of State For Information, Communication and the Arts and Health

Venue: Ocean Ballroom, Pan Pacific Singapore

Mr Thomas E Lee

Chief Executive Officer, Assisi Home and Hospice / Mt Alvernia Hospital

Introduction 

A very good morning ladies and gentlemen. I am very happy to be able to join all of you this morning for Assisi Home & Hospice's first seminar on "Palliative Beyond the Hospice".

Palliative Care

Palliative care has been helping patients and their families to improve their quality of life. It takes an active approach to the care which encompasses the physical, psychosocial and spiritual needs. Hospices have been playing an important role in palliative care. Hospices achieve this through several efforts. Firstly, they provide medical care to reduce pain and suffering. Secondly, they provide emotional and spiritual support to the patient, as well as his or her family and friends, to come to terms with the prospect of loss. Palliative care therefore plays an important role in holistic patient care.

Teamwork in Palliative Care

Palliative care can be very demanding. Yet, despite all these challenges and difficulties, palliative care can be immensely rewarding. It is best administered by a group of people working as a team. The team is collectively concerned with the total well-being of the patient and family. Coordination is an important part of teamwork. The palliative care team should work alongside the primary care medical team to meet the demands from the patient and their families.

In Singapore, about 8,000 people are stricken with cancer each year. The lives of patients and families are affected in many ways by cancer. For many of these patients and their families, it is a long road, with many ups and downs, from the day of diagnosis to the terminal stage. These patients can benefit from palliative care's pain management, symptom control and its holistic approach of providing care and support for the physical, psychosocial and spiritual needs of the patients and their families. Palliative care can complement a patient's life-prolonging or curative treatments.

Palliative Care for Children

Palliative care is applicable to both adults and children. Palliative care for children is the active total care of the child's body, mind and spirit, and also involves giving support to the family. At Assisi Home & Hospice, palliative care has worked well for the children at their day centre. The children there undergo curative or life-prolonging treatment at the KK Women's and Children's Hospital and the National University Hospital, but at the same time receive palliative care from the team at Assisi.  The Assisi Children's Centre was set-up in response to the need to provide psychosocial and emotional support to these children with cancer. I am glad to note that their close collaboration with the primary healthcare teams in the hospitals has produced excellent care for these children. Given the high remission rate of cancer in children, many of them go on to live long and healthy lives. It is important that they and their families are supported during this traumatic period of their lives.

A case in point is that of the first child to step into the newly set-up Assisi Children's Centre in August 2000. He was wheelchair bound.  Today, 5 years later, he has written 2 books and was awarded an honorary Life membership to the Young Writers' Society. He also walked onstage at Assisi's Charity Gala Dinner last year and confidently gave his testimony in front of more than 450 guests.

The Assisi Children's Centre has admitted 139 children with cancer since the start of its operations in August 2000. The Centre has provided hospice support to these children. The psychosocial and emotional support together with the Centre's programmes for continuing education and play therapies allow these children to grow in confidence and develop physically and mentally in a safe environment. All these factors have helped to improve these children's mental and physical state of health. Many came in frightened and withdrawn, but have emerged happy and confident. Therefore, the work that the hospice has done is truly a laudable effort.

Conclusion

I would like to thank Assisi Home & Hospice for inviting me here as the guest of honour and I wish all of you a very fruitful day of learning and interaction at this seminar.

Thank you.