Global Perspectives In Cancer Care

"Contemporary medical models focus predominantly on the technical and financial aspects of care. While these are important aspects of care, they fail to include what may be the most critical need of patients and families - that is, the whole-person approach to care where psychosocial and spiritual needs are viewed as essential and just as important as the physical. Cecily Saunders, the founder of hospice, was one of the first to describe the concept of 'total pain', which led to the biopsychosocial and spiritual model of care. In 2014, the World Health Assembly for the WHO passed a resolution which included spiritual care as an essential domain of palliative care, stating that Palliative Care is an approach that improves the quality of life of patients "through the prevention and relief of suffering by means of early identification and correct assessment and treatment of pain and other problems, whether physical, psychosocial or spiritual." WHO also noted that "it is the ethical duty of health care professionals" to alleviate pain and suffering, whether physical, psychosocial or spiritual and further supported an interdisciplinary model by noting the need for collaboration between professional palliative care providers and support care providers, including spiritual support and counseling"--