Palliative Care—Living Your Best Life

A serious diagnosis such as COPD, advanced cancer, debilitating cardiac conditions or even forms of dementia undoubtedly feel overwhelming for both patient and caregiver. It may even make you feel a little hopeless. But it doesn’t need to. The relatively new medical and nursing specialty of Palliative Care focuses on turning a devastating, life altering diagnosis into an opportunity to live your best life.

What is Palliative Care? Why should I consider adding it to my care plan?

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 for both the patient and family.?

Who Provides Palliative Care?

Palliative care is provided by a team of specially trained doctors, nurses and other support specialists who work together with a patient’s other doctors to provide an extra layer of care. The approach is multidisciplinary and is designed to help reduce readmissions to the hospital, provide patient and family education and help reduce the stress of overall living with a serious medical condition.

Palliative Care does not replace treatment for a chronic or serious long term condition. It is a specialized kind of care designed to reduce pain and improve functioning and quality of life during treatment for the diagnosed condition. It is important to note that Palliative Care is not Hospice Care, which is reserved for the last 6 months of life. Palliative Care is comfort care.?

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If you had a serious illness, would you ever consider palliative care?