What is palliative care?

It is often difficult for patients and their families to manage all of the issues surrounding a serious, complex or terminal illness.

Conditions like cancer, heart and lung disease, and neurologic disorders present very real practical and emotional challenges beyond medical treatment.

Palliative care is consultative medical care by an interdisciplinary team that promotes quality of life and relieves suffering. The goal is to identify the physical, psychological, spiritual and practical burdens of illness, involve the right specialists, and help them work together to promote the best possible quality of life for patients and families facing serious, life-threatening illness.

Palliative care can occur simultaneously with treatments that have cure and recovery as their goal. Supporting the whole person and family in the midst of the struggle can more effectively allow a person to live well, whether the goal is cure or care.

Palliative care is for anyone with a serious illness that causes discomfort, anxiety or other physical or emotional distress. And palliative care can be a healthcare option from the time of diagnosis through treatment.