Most of us consider death as a reality, which is but distant enough not to bother our day-to-day life. But for few amidst us death is ‘close and definite’ by a few months. For their dear and near, it is like staring helplessly at the final few minutes of a fast melting flickering candle.

The difficult time that terminally ill patients and their family go through is very hard; especially when the illness itself is physically and psychologically painful. Would you stop caring for one in your family even if you know you cannot help him/her live longer? You just cannot.

Care Plus is a humble initiative to provide Care beyond Cure to terminally ill cancer patients and provide support to their families. This is a voluntary organization which identifies patients within Thiruvananthapuram district and provides home care to terminally ill cancer patients during the final few months of their lives.
Read more about Care Plus and its origin.

For Home Care provided by the organization, patients living within 50 kilometer radius are identified. Care Plus employs a doctor trained in palliative care, a nurse and an office assistant. With the help of the conveyance provided by the Regional Cancer Center (RCC), the Doctor and Nurse assisted by a volunteer are on duty six days a week. Three days are spent every week in attending peripheral clinics and caring for RCC patients living in the locality of these clinics. The other three days are kept aside for visiting patients at their homes. Know more about Home Care and what all are done as part of this.

In addition to the care provided to the patients, Care Plus tries to meet the needs of their families too. Care Plus has currently 62 children of cancer patients under their wing. Through different sponsors, care Plus take care of the educational expenses of these children - 48 at the school level, 9 in college, and 5 undergoing vocational training. They keep constant touch with these children and monitor their progress. Four families brought to the verge of suicide by the harrowing effects of cancer have been counseled and helped out of the depths of their despair. Few cases on support and rehabilitation provided by Care Plus are given here for readers who are interested.

Snehasparsham camps were organized as part of rehabilitation activities. Snehasparsham in Malayalam means a touch of love. In association with the Rotary and Inner Wheel Clubs, the first camp provided prostheses free of cost to 19 cancer patients who had had limbs amputated. The second camp was a get-together for all the children whose education Care Plus support, and their guardians. Read on how Snehasparsham aimed to bring in rays of hope to the poor families.

With just a handful of active members ‘Care Plus’, with God’s grace, has been able to provide care beyond cure to a large number of cancer patients and their families. The smiles which we see on faces whose lives are melting away, the hope and gratitude of the families, which is expressed many a times as unspoken gestures are strong reasons which drives us through.

Let us assure the unlucky few that we do care for their lives however short it is.

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The Origin of Care Plus

Care Plus was formed in June 2003 by a small group, many of whom were already involved in volunteer work at the Regional Cancer Centre (RCC), Thiruvananthapuram.

Their dream was to build up an organization to provide home care to terminally ill cancer patients and also to take up various other projects for the benefit of patients and their dependents.

Care Plus has been given part of a room in the pain and palliative ward of RCC and this is the Care Plus office. The organization Plus now has 25 members, and an executive committee of 7, which meets once a month.

Home Care

Free medicines are provided for pain management and symptomatic treatment. Wound dressings, catheterization, etc. are done as needed. For families on the verge of bankruptcy due to the financial toll taken by the disease, Care Plus provides provisions and nutritional supplements for the patient.

Volunteers counsel the patient and family members. On average, up to the time of death, the patient is visited once every 2 or 3 weeks for a period ranging from about a month to six months.

For most patients, prolonged hospitalization is not an option. Without this care, many of them would spend their last days in abject misery and unimaginable suffering. We have here accounts of a few patients whom Care Plus could help and support, through this initiative.

Care Plus patients list is computerized and able to plan the daily home care route, and keep track of which of our patients are due for follow-up visits. In addition, palliative care Out-Patient section of RCC informs about new patients requiring home care.

Though Care Plus is not able to visit the patients regularly enough, telephone number is given to all the patients, so that they can contact Care Plus in an emergency. Care Plus want the patients and their families to know that there are people who care and can be counted on to help and support them.

Rehabilitation

In 6 cases, to help families get back on their feet after the death of the patient, Care Plus has provided goats, sewing machines or other means to set up small commercial ventures, depending on the need and individual circumstances.

Care Plus helped two children to find jobs and entrusted the husband of one patient to an old age home.

Snehasparsham

The first camp provided prostheses free of cost to 19 cancer patients who had had limbs amputated. This was conducted in association with the Rotary and Inner Wheel Clubs.

The second camp was a get-together for all the children whose education Care Plus support, and their guardian - was conducted. Most of the children receive just enough to pay their monthly fees, but get no help with other expenses. Care Plus gave all our children notebooks, textbooks, schoolbags, stationery and material for uniforms as per their individual requirements for the coming academic year. Had three inspiring speakers to talk to the children and their guardians. The children were all given medical, dental and eye check ups. The children and their guardians were given lunch, played games and interacted with others like them who had suffered the loss of a loved one to cancer. It was a day of joy and renewed hope for the future.

Excerpts From Real Life

Given below are the accounts of a few patients that Care Plus was able to help. Names have been changed to protect the privacy of the patients.

Shaila was a 16 year old terminally ill patient of the RCC, Trivandrum. For many months she lay in agony in her home at Edakkodu. Her large family was helpless, unable to ease her suffering. Between October 2003 and January 2004, the Care Plus team visited Shaila and her family six times. The doctor after examining Shaila, adjusted the strength of her pain medication. The nurse dressed infected wounds. Shaila opened her heart to the volunteers, speaking of her anxiety about her end, and how it would affect her family members. The volunteers assured her that Care Plus would be there for her and her family. Shaila breathed her last in early January 2005. The Care Plus team were a tremendous source of support for her and her family till the very end.

In November 2003, the team visited Susheela a fifty year old woman in her home at Karakulam. One side of her face was a gaping wound infested with maggots. The nurse and the volunteer picked out all the maggots and cleaned the wound. As they were leaving, the son tearfully said, “If you people had not come today, I would have ended Amma’s life with poison.” The husband, still hopeful, wanted reassurance that his wife was going to be alright. A caring loving family, but unable to give Susheela the care that she needs. Care Plus helped to shift Susheela to a hospice at Kattela, where she is being well looked after. Her family can visit her or even stay with her if they wish.

Since March 2004, Care Plus has been looking after Bhanu, a tribal woman living at Kuttichal. She is given a folding cot and regular supplies of medicines. When she needed emergency hospitalization, Care Plus helped the family to bring her to RCC, and met her expenses during that period. Since her husband, an asthma patient is unable to work, the family lives in dire poverty. The family was given regular supplies of provisions and also helped with some of the educational requirements of the patient’s 16 year old son. To get to Bhanu’s home, one has to walk up a hill through forest land. Despite this, the Care Plus team visited her regularly till her death in September that year.

Contact & Contribution Information

Address:

Phone: +91 471 3095335
Email: care_plus13@yahoo.co.in
Secretary: Cherian Philip
Office Hours: 9:30 AM to 12:30 PM

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