May Shaw Health Centre

May Shaw Health Centre maintains a palliative suite aimed at providing care to a terminally ill patient to achieve the best possible quality of life for them while assisting their family and carers.

Palliative care:

• affirms life and treats dying as a normal process;
• neither hastens nor postpones death;
• provides relief from pain and other distressing symptoms;
• integrates the physical, psychological, social, emotional and spiritual aspects of care, with coordinated assessment and management of each person's needs;
• offers a support system to help the family cope during the person's illness and in their own bereavement.

Palliative care within our facility is provided to patients of all ages who are dying with patients referred by their local doctor.

The need for palliative care does not depend on any specific medical diagnosis, but on the person's needs. Some of the common medical conditions of people requiring palliative care include: cancer, HIV/AIDS, motor neurone disease, muscular dystrophy, multiple sclerosis and end-stage dementia.