On Saturday, October 10, World Day of Palliative Care was observed. It’s a date that often goes unnoticed, partly because a persistent misconception endures: that palliative care arrives when “there is nothing left to do.” I hear it regularly, in clinics and outside them, and it’s one of the ideas I’m most keen to dismantle, because it is exactly the opposite: palliative care is not the end of treatment, but something that begins when there is still much to do.
That confusion has real costs. Families postpone seeking help because they feel accepting it means resigning, when in reality it is the opposite: it opens the door for the person to receive proper care, even when a cure is no longer possible.
Palliative care is directed at people with advanced illnesses and aims to transform that life stage by continuing to care, relieving pain, and attending to all the physical, emotional, social, and spiritual needs of each person until the last day. It is about accompanying them to live and to take the lead in that very special time.
In clinical practice, this translates into something concrete: the human being goes far beyond an incurable disease. Those who can no longer be cured retain their bonds, their history, their sense of humor, things to say; they remain, essentially, who they have always been.
What is needed is for those around them, including the health care team, to pause and see them that way, and not merely as a diagnosis. This is where palliative care has much to offer: relief of pain and other symptoms, but also listening, companionship, and the space for that person to remain who they are until the end.
In Argentina there is still much to do for this to reach everyone who needs it. According to sector estimates, only one in ten people who require palliative care accesses it. There is a law, 27.678, aimed at guaranteeing access throughout the public and private health system: while it is now regulated, it is a very recent regulation and there is still a long path of implementation to travel, especially for those in greater vulnerability who have fewer opportunities to obtain quality care through other means at that stage of life.
In 2009, together with others who share the same view of care, we founded Hospice Buen Samaritano in Pilar, to put this into practice for those with the fewest resources. There we host them as guests, and the days resemble those of a home more than a health institution: there are people who cook, who receive visits, who share a mate in the garden, who simply need someone to sit by their side for a long while.
But care does not stay behind those walls: we also bring it to public hospitals and to the homes of those who cannot travel or prefer to go through this stage at home, with their loved ones. We learned that care must go to look for the person wherever they are, not wait for them to come to us.
If someone reading this has a loved one in this situation, it is important to inquire about palliative care as soon as an advanced illness appears, whether in the hospital or with the coverage they have, even if no one offers it to them first.
This year we adopted as our motto “Pause to Love.” I believe the essence of what is needed lies there: truly pausing to be with the other. Caring does not end when the possibility of curing ends. There, in fact, is where it really begins.
Source: Dr. Matías Najún is a physician, head of the Integrated Care (Palliative) Service at Austral University Hospital, and founder of Hospice Buen Samaritano in Pilar.
