Taking care of patients, to improve their quality of life while living with the disease . This is the objective of the Palliative Care and Pain Therapy Center of San Giovanni di Dio , managed by Professor Gabriele Finco, which records over six thousand visits a year . At the University Hospital of Cagliari forty hours per week, from Monday to Friday, of pharmacological therapy, art therapy and relaxation techniques.
«Every day», explains Maria Cristina Deidda , palliative oncologist and contact person for the Centre's day service, «we work with many patients suffering from incurable pathologies who try to reduce physical, emotional, psychological pain and any other symptom related to the underlying disease or to the side effects of the treatment".
Sunday 26 May will be National Relief Therapy Day, an opportunity to remember the importance of treating all suffering, of patients and families, especially when the disease no longer responds to specific interventions.
«The palliative care of our day service» states Deidda, «is based on caring, on the relief of suffering, putting the patient and his family at the center and not the disease , with quality of life as the main objective». Palliative care does not shorten or prolong the patient's life but provides comfort, taking into consideration the psychological and spiritual aspects. «We have been using for years» , explains the oncologist, «early palliative care , simultaneously with treatments such as chemo-radiotherapy, from the beginning of the therapeutic process».
Communication and awareness raising are essential. «We have raised awareness among the patients' families », says the doctor, «about how to accompany death , we have organized playful moments with gospel music concerts in the hospital, so as to bring comfort to the rooms, even for those who were away from home during the Christmas holidays» .
«We help patients to see themselves as people» , continues the specialist, «and not as their illness, which is why we organize the “Vestiamoci di Vita” event every year, the parade featuring the oncology patients of the Palliative Care Center and of the pain of the Cagliari University Hospital, where they have the opportunity to express their beauty, beyond their journey of treatment and coexistence with the disease."
The Aou has also dedicated a theatrical show to palliative care that represents moments of life lived by patients and health workers of the Centre, entitled "Journey to the heart of Hippocrates" . It will soon also be performed again in the Nuoro theatre.
