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This article contributed by Brenda Keenan (Registered nurse, Masters in Nursing and Certified Case Manager in Los Angeles, California, US)

What is palliative care?

Palliative care (from the Latin term “to cloak”) is any form of medical care or treatment that concentrates on reducing the severity of disease symptoms, rather than striving to halt, delay, or reverse progression of the disease itself or provide a cure.

The goal of palliative care

Palliative care is also known as comfort care, supportive care and symptom management. The main goal of palliative care is to help people live more comfortably with any chronic or life-threatening condition. The palliative care approach is not dependent on prognosis.

Interdisciplinary approach

When patients are experiencing a diminished quality of life due to a chronic illness, palliative care can help. A team of medical professionals from several disciplines works together to assist patients and families in alleviating suffering and improving quality of life. This comprehensive approach to treatment focuses on the physical, psychological, spiritual, and existential needs of the patient. The goal is to offer the best quality of life available to the patient by relieving suffering and controlling pain and symptoms.

Individualised care

This relatively modern branch of medicine dealing with pain, symptom relief, and emotional support is especially effective when patients have cancer and heart failure. Palliative care is not a one-size-fits-all approach – patients have a range of diseases and respond differently to treatment options. The care customizes treatment to meet the individual needs of each patient.

The team includes the patient

The patient is a part of the team including physicians, nurses, and social workers, chaplains, massage therapists, pharmacists, nutritionists and others. You have a role :

• Keep a journal that records your specific treatments, diagnostic tests, and medications with the dates and location of treatments.

• Record names of physicians and telephone numbers should in your journal.

• Record symptoms along with the intensity of pain, shortness of breath, fatigue, constipation, nausea, loss of appetite, and difficulty sleeping.

• Take your journal with you to doctor visits and clinic appointments. You can improve your treatment and help your medical team care for you when you participate in gathering data and planning treatment. This approach can improve your ability to tolerate medical treatments, and helps you understand your care choices.

If you can’t obtain palliative care

Sometimes palliative care as such is not available to patients who are fairly well. In this case you can still improve your quality of life and reduce pain and other unpleasant symptoms by taking a proactive approach.

• Keep a log of your symptoms as described above.

• Talk with your carers about how you feel – be honest and persistent and provide detailed information.

• Keep careful track of your symptoms so your team can problem-solve with you.

• Complementary medicine can provide solutions to seemingly intractable problems and is well worth a try. You can learn more on our integrative medicine and stress reduction pages.

• Ask your care team for advice and resources.

Is palliative care the same as hospice care?

No. Palliative care may be provided at any time during a patient’s illness, even from the time of diagnosis. Most importantly, you can receive palliative care at the same time as treatment. Hospice care always includes palliative care, but hospice care is different because it focuses on terminally ill patients who no longer seek treatments to cure them and who are expected to live for about six months or less.

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