Palliative care is not only about treatment and therapy, but holistic wellbeing.
” According to a recent study in the journal ecancermedicalscience, India has just four palliative care centres for every 10 million people. Borges is the founder of Sukoon Nilaya (Abode of Tranquility), a 35-bed, free palliative care facility run by the King George V Memorial Trust at Mahalaxmi. Borges says, “Awareness of the need for palliative care for non-cancer patients has only emerged in the last 10 years. They got in touch with Romila Palliative Care (RPC) for help with Roohi’s mother, who suffered a stroke in 2021.
“Palliative care attempts to ease all incumbent pressures, so that the patient responds better to treatment and improves their quality of life.
“There is a misunderstanding that palliative care is only about end-of-life care, but the truth is that it is needed for any life-limiting or life-threatening illness,” says Jerry Pinto, whose 2025 book A Good Life: The Power of Palliative Care describes standout models of care across the country. “Long drawn-out chronic illnesses drain patients and caregivers of everything, including finances,” says cardiologist Dr. “I initially had a tough time convincing colleagues that non-cancer patients needed help too,” Dr. “I grew weak and depressed,” she says, describing caregiver burnout.
Both might seem unlikely recipients of palliative care, which is associated almost exclusively with terminal illness, and invariably, with cancer. “Diabetes is a life-limiting illness, so is Parkinson’s Disease. The awareness that these patients and their caregivers need palliation too is not widespread in society. Eric Borges. Dr. Funded by Cipla Foundation, Tata Trusts and others, it is Mumbai’s only in-patient palliative care facility that prioritizes non-cancer patients, including children. Roohi Salamsheikh and her husband Abdul had never heard of palliative care until they came by a pamphlet at Cooper Hospital. As the primary caregiver, Roohi developed severe backache tending her bed-ridden mother in her small Jogeshwari rental. Relief came with RPC through free medicines and diapers, monthly doctor visits—and crucially, a helpline.
Practitioners of this system of healthcare are working hard to change that perception—an effort that was doubled on Saturday’s World Hospice and Palliative Care Day, with awareness programmes conducted nationwide.