Comments on: Please Help My Mother with Stomach Cancer

By: Jeanne Frye, RN, CHPN

Jeanne Frye, RN, CHPN — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 21:51:11 +0000

Judy, you are so right on this one. Even the best “national system” will not help physicians and medical staff talk to patients and families about terminal illness. It is hard stuff, it is uncomfortable, it takes alot of time.
Some hospitals have palliative “teams” (meaning comfort care). Seek those folks out, they get it and they know how to talk (or really how to listen), to patients and their family.
To Lucinda: simply state, ” my goal is for my Mom to go home and be comfortable, help me set up the resources necessary to do this.” Keep asking, don’t give up. Blessings to you.

By: Judy

Judy — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 13:41:57 +0000

In answer to Jane — shouldn’t a good social worker seek out people like Lucia’s mother, a desperate patient with a terminal illness? — the answer is, Yes.
Of course.
But hospitals are often messy places, suffering staff shortages and, all too often, overwhelmed, overworked medical personnel who may grow callous and indifferent as the years roll by.
In answer to Frank, who points out that we need a national health insurance system that provides universal coverage, the answer is:
Yes.
I agree with you completely.
But that national system has to be carefully designed and implemented. Creating a national system doesn’t ensure compassionate care for patients with terminal illnesses and their families.
That issue, like so much else, needs to be worked out.

By: Frank

Frank — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 13:02:06 +0000

That woman’s situation is another example of why we need a national health insurance system which provides coverage for everyone.
She needs help quickly, and our current system just doesn’t provide it to a hard-working, upright individual facing a catastrophic family crisis.

By: Jane

Jane — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 05:38:46 +0000

Shouldn’t a decent hospital social worker seek out people like Lucia and her mother, who obviously don’t know their way around the system, rather than wait to be approached? What if Lucia hadn’t written to you?