A comprehensive palliative care centre, established at PKTB Sanatorium and CD Hospital on K.R.S. Road, was dedicated to the community on Friday.
A joint initiative of Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement (SVYM), an NGO, and Mysore Medical College and Research Institute (MMCRI), 24x7 institutional-based palliative care services will be available for free to those suffering from life-limiting diseases and disorders.
The people behind the initiative maintained that the centre was unique and could be the first of its kind in the State in which an NGO, government, academia and community have come together to provide palliative care services. The idea is to improve the quality of life of such patients and their families.
Pallium India Chairman M.B. Rajagopal, considered a doyen in palliative care movement in the country, inaugurated the centre. SVYM Founder R. Balasubramaniam, Secretary M.A. Balasubramanya, N.R. Group Chairman R. Guru, MMCRI Principal Dakshayini K.R., and others were present.
The Palliative Care Centre is an 18-bed facility catering to the needs of terminally ill patients in Mysuru and neighbouring towns and villages. Though it started functioning in April last, it was dedicated to the community now, after introducing more facilities with the contributions from several donors and making it fully functional.
In addition to this, SVYM, which started home-based palliative care since 2009, has a 10-bed facility for palliative care services at Vivekananda Memorial Hospital at Sargur in H.D. Kote taluk for providing institutional care.
Karnataka was the third State in the country that introduced the policy on palliative care three years ago, and SVYM played an important role in the drafting and approval of the policy, according to Dr. (Flt Lt) M.A. Balasubramanya.
SVYM’s palliative care provides services through a family-centric approach. The patient’s family is trained to provide appropriate care. Social entitlements are facilitated for the patient and their families. Counselling services are also provided to the family to cope up with the situation as well as in the event of death, to enable them to carry on with their lives, said B.S. Ramakrishna Mudre, Honorary Director, SVYM Palliative Care, Mysuru.
The service is being provided free. About 93% of the patients availing palliative care were from the marginalised community here.
The collaboration is hoping to create a replicable model of palliative care service, in tune with the State government’s policy on palliative care that can be implemented in other districts of the State.
