The wandering of death: Palliative care, utopia or reality?

Abstract

Introduction: The increase in life expectancy has doubled in a century, and the dynamics of morbimortality profiles took a turn to the predominance of non-communicable diseases. Chronic and progressive conditions alter all dimensions of the human beings and lead to a progressive deterioration of the individual, which results in the increase of the need for care. The care emerges as comprehensive support to achieve the highest level of comfort and to decrease the impact of the disease on the patient and his/her family. Objective: This manuscript is intended to describe the realities, achievements and challenges of palliative care (PC) for the actors of the Colombian health system. Results: The worldwide growth of people who require palliative care encourages international organizations to guide countries towards the integration of palliative care into health systems, emphasizing on primary, community, and home health care. The world reports a heterogeneous dynamic of palliative care, while developed countries increase access, coverage and a multi-level care with an emphasis on the community level; Latin America and the Caribbean countries focus on the attention from an isolated supply of palliative care of the health system. Conclusions: The development of palliative care involves not only the creation of policies that recognize palliative care, but also requires support systems from all levels of care, strengthening of community actions, developing skills in health professionals along with the integration of health services to achieve access and coverage around the world. [Rozo-Gutiérrez N. The wandering of death: Palliative care, utopia or reality? MedUNAB 2016; 19(1):46-55]