Palliative Care

What is Palliative Care

Palliative Care is focused on improving the overall wellness of individuals with painful or serious illnesses. It addresses both the physical symptoms and the emotional stress of living with a chronic illness. It can also provide support for loved ones or caregivers. As it is based on individual needs, Palliative Care can be quite different from one person to the next.

Palliative Care differs from Hospice services in that Palliative care focuses on making the patient comfortable and their symptoms more manageable while still treating the disease. Hospice care focuses on patients who have chosen to stop all aggressive treatments and are seeking comfort measures until the end of life.

Palliative Care is appropriate for patients in all disease stages including those undergoing treatment for curable illnesses, those living with chronic disease and patients who are nearing the end of life.

Palliative Care utilizes a multidisciplinary approach to patient care. Input from many allied health professionals is used to formulate a plan of care focused on relieving areas of distress in a patient’s life.

Palliative Care’s approach allows the team to address physical, emotional, spiritual and social concerns that arise with advanced illness.

Who can benefit from palliative care?

Cancer, dementia, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are some of the most common conditions where Palliative Care is especially helpful. Palliative Care does not replace primary treatment, instead, they work together to prevent and ease suffering.