Palliative Care helps people with serious illness by reducing symptoms, stress, and hospitalizations- and increasing quality of life for you and your support person(s). How does it do this? It provides an extra layer of support to improve quality of life while getting treatment for a serious illness.
You can live well while living with a serious illness
Palliative care helps you manage symptoms so you can stay at home rather than go to the Emergency Department or the hospital. It reduces physical discomfort and makes living with a serious illness easier- both for you and those who support you. You may be faced with several decisions about your care which can feel overwhelming. Palliative care will help you make decisions about your care based on your values and what matters most to you.
Palliative Care helps your doctors talk to each other to understand what matters most to you as you live with your serious illness
It’s common for someone who has a serious illness to work with multiple doctors. What can be challenging is making sure they know what the other is doing and why. Palliative care works in partnership with the other doctors and can help communicate your goals to the healthcare professionals caring for you. That way, your care is well-coordinated and focused on what matters most to you and your support person (s). They will also take extra time to communicate with you about your treatment options and help navigate the health system.
Palliative Care is provided by a team of health professionals that try to help address your concerns. A lot is going on when you’re living with a serious illness.
Living with a serious illness can bring on more than just physical challenges. It’s common to experience things like emotional ups and downs, financial concerns, spiritual angst and caregiver distress. That’s why palliative care is provided by a team that will often include not only the doctor, but a nurse, social worker, chaplain, pharmacist and other specialists to help you with everything that life throws your way.
Palliative Care can begin the moment you are diagnosed with a serious illness.
Here is an example of how palliative care can help:
Laura, 72, enjoyed her retirement until she noticed she was having trouble keeping up with her friends on their walks. She went to her primary care doctor, and then a heart specialist, who found out that she had had a silent heart attack. A few weeks later, Laura had another heart attack and ended up in the hospital with heart failure. A nurse, Nicole, came to see Laura. Nicole explained that she was a nurse on the palliative care team, which meant focusing on helping people live well, even with a serious illness. Nicole asked Laura what was most important to her about her care, and then arranged support that Laura didn’t know existed. That included giving her medication for nausea, helping her with how to talk about her illness with her grandchildren, and a social worker to provide support to Laura’s husband. A few weeks after starting palliative care, Laura is starting to feel normal again and back to enjoying many of the activities she used to do.