Palliative Care
What Is Palliative Care
Palliative care is specialized medical care for people living with a serious illness. This type of care is focused on providing relief from the symptoms and stress of the illness. The goal is to improve the quality of life for both the patient and their family.
In addition to improving the quality of life, palliative care helps patients understand their medical treatment options. Palliative Care is appropriate at any stage of a serious illness and can be provided with curative treatment.
Types of Serious Illnesses:
- Heart Failure
- Cancer
- Dementia
- Parkinson's Disease
- Alzheimers
Relief of Symptoms
The goal of palliative care is to help with symptoms and relieve stress by providing the best quality of life for the patient and family members. Some common symptoms include pain, depression, shortness of breath, fatigue, loss of appetite, constipation, difficulty sleeping, and anxiety. The team will help aid in reducing these symptoms and improve your comfort and well-being.
Treatment Options that Align with Your Healthcare Goals
In addition to treating your symptoms and providing an extra layer of support, a palliative care team communicates with your doctors and nurses to make sure everyone is on the same page.
How to Get Palliative Care
If you or a loved one is facing a serious illness, you can qualify for palliative care. Palliative care is appropriate at any stage of illness so contact our health care professionals today.
Palliative Care and Hospice Care both offer compassionate care to patients with serious, chronic, and life-threatening illnesses.
However, the prognosis and goals of hospice care tend to be different.
Hospice care is reserved for patients that are terminally ill with a 6-month life expectancy and have stopped curative treatment. Hospice care is most often provided in a patient’s home setting – regardless of if it’s a house, an apartment, an assisted living facility, or any other setting.
Alternatively, palliative care is for patients at any stage of their illness.
The goal of palliative care is to improve the quality of life for patients while getting medical treatment. Patients commonly seek this kind of treatment to help deal with the stress that comes with a serious illness or side effects from medical treatment.
