NEWSLETTER // MAY 2014
CARING FOR PEOPLE, NOT PATIENTS Dr James Jap – Palliative Care Specialist
Modern medicine is generally focused on finding a cure, but what happens when you can’t fix someone? Totara Hospice Palliative Care Specialist Dr James Jap believes his speciality has the answer. “We’re the last bastion of health care for patients. When there’s nothing else that can be done, we can always offer something. We can help out.” He says his aim is to reduce anxiety and stress by giving patients more control over their care, in a comfortable and supportive atmosphere.
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A NOTE FROM ALAN BEAL - CHIEF EXECUTIV
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“This is not about fixing people. We can’t, but there are still ways to make a difference,” Dr Jap says, “and it’s a satisfying difference to make.” Along with the Totara Hospice Palliative Care Team, Dr Jap works to provide the best quality of life possible, which means catering to the patient’s emotional and spiritual needs, not just the physical.
As always thanks for your ongoing support.
“It’s what makes up a whole person and we try to cover all of that with each interaction. That’s a more satisfactory way of dealing with patients – they are people, not just a disease.” Dr Jap says that palliative care’s holistic approach extends to the families too. “What the patient is going through also affects the family.” “It’s important stuff: getting people through difficult times and supporting them through the end-of-life turmoil that can occur,” he says. With no hope of miraculous cures or high-tech fixes, Dr Jap says he feels most successful when he can reveal the real person underneath
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the symptoms. “You feel like you’ve won when you can bring out the real person with the interventions that we do – allow the real person to shine out, not suppressed by the burden of their symptoms. It’s like shining a light through the shadow of their suffering.” A growing concern for Dr Jap is New Zealand’s aging population, which will create greater demand for palliative care. “We’re going to need more people to help us. There’s no way we can do it on our own, we need more GPs, more nurses who will put their hands up and join our team, for our community and the population in general.” During their training most healthcare professionals have limited exposure to palliative care. Dr Jap and the team offer local GP’s, nurses and GP registrars a chance to come and experience working in a Hospice setting. “It’s a call to arms – there’s a problem on the horizon - or right now in fact. We need more people interested and involved in providing palliative care.”
Totara Hospice Medical Team – L to R: Dr Sergio Battistessa, Dr Willie Landman, Dr James Jap and Dr Oleg Kiriaev
Totara Hospice South Auckland | 140 Charles Prevost Drive | PO Box 75560 Manurewa, Auckland 2243 P 09 640 0025 | F 09 640 0291 | www.hospice.co.nz | info@hospice.co.nz