This article originally appeared on eHospice.
Family doctors play a crucial role in supporting patients and families through life events, including death and bereavement, even without specialist training in palliative care. Many patients in India do not access primary care, due to the differences between states in economic resources and availability of health care workers. This has a detrimental effect on health outcomes and meant that patients and families living with terminal illness usually lack the support of their family doctor.
The palliative care teams are unable to treat every family member as their own patient as their resources are stretched. Suicide is a consequence of the huge strain families are under because of chronic or terminal illness. In India, 25% of documented are as a result of family problems and another 20% due to illness. The author suggests that for the current situation in India to improve, there needs to be better access to essential pain medications and implementation of government pain management and palliative care policies.
Read the full article here.