Palliative Care for COPD and Depression

Running Head: Health Variation
Health Variation
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

1Health Variation
Introduction:
Palliative care is a medical care which is provided to patient suffering from serious
disorders and medical conditions such as depression, heart disorders, cancer and many more.
The care source is provided by building a multidisciplinary team which includes nurses,
physicians, dieticians, specialities and other stakeholders (Miller et al., 2016). In this
assignment, by focusing on the case study of Mrs Brown, a proper palliative care will be
discussed which will ensure a better health outcome for her. The palliative care will be
designed for her for the issues she has been witnessing such as COPD and depression.
Discussion:
Palliative care is a specific medical care provided in case of patient suffering from
chronic illness. Palliative care is mainly concentrated on relive from the stress and symptoms
of the disease. The main aim of palliative care is to improve the standard of life for the
patient and the family. The patient care is provided to the patient by the help of multi-
disciplinary team such as, nurses, doctor, psychologist, physiotherapist, dietician and other
specialist. It is done to provide an extra support to the patient. It is conducted at any stage of
the serious illness in order to provide a curative treatment to the patient (Dumanovsky et al.,
2015).
Palliative care helps in improving the quality of life of the patient suffering from
critical illness by providing the care that helps in the treatment of pain, nausea, difficulty in
sleeping, fatigue, shortness of breathing and other symptoms that is responsible for causing
distress. To provide palliative care to the patient, the palliative care team conducts closed
communication between of the patient. In the closed communication the goals of the patient
is identified and with the help of palliative those goals were achieved (Kelley & Morrison,

2Health Variation
2015). Palliative care team are the team of specialist that works together with the patient,
their family and other doctors.
In case of Mr. Brown, who is 62 year old woman and leaves with her family. She did
not visit her general physician regularly, except only when her health starts deteriorating. She
has been admitted to hospital with the frequent exacerbation of COPD. Although her family
supports her a lot, but due to her health condition she feels that she is becoming a burden on
her family. Ms Brown had also been diagnosed with depression and was experiencing several
panic attacks. She has been hospitalized due to shortness of breathing and coughing. Her
symptoms also include rhinorrhoea. Along with that, she has also reported chronic cough in
the morning associated with increased white sputum (Wedzicha, Singh & Mackay, 2014).
From the case it is analysed that the two major health issues from which Ms Brown is
suffering from is COPD and depression. Both of this major health issues are affecting her
physical as well as mental well-being. In order to provide effective treatment to the patient
and to improve the quality of life, treatment with the help of palliative care is provided to the
patient (Dumanovsky et al., 2015).
COPD (Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) is an inflammatory disease associated
with lung. In COPD, airflow from lungs is obstructed which gives rise to different symptoms
such as, shortness of breathing, mucus production, cough and wheezing. The symptoms of
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease are visible is Ms Brown. She is also suffering from
Rhinorrhoea (condition where the nasal cavity of the patient is filled with significant amount
of mucus). Along with that she is also suffering from shortness of breathing and also reported
chronic morning cough associated with the production of white mucus. As in the case of
patient suffering from COPD airflow is obstructed, which causes lack of energy resulting in
fatigue mad weakness among the patient (Wedzicha, Singh & Mackay, 2014).