Palliative care is the art and science of managing pain, shortening life and improving the quality of life. Palliative care can help patients who are in the last months or years of their lives get their symptoms under control so they can be as comfortable as possible.
It also helps families deal with difficult emotions and make decisions that meet their loved one’s needs.
Palliative care is focused on the person, not just the disease
Palliative care is a team effort. Palliative care focuses on the person, not just the disease. It involves working with healthcare professionals, family members and friends to help you live your life as best you can while facing any challenges related to your condition(s).
A palliative care assessment will include an interview with you or another trusted person who knows you well; discussions about goals for treatment; and recommendations for services that may be available in your community.
Palliative care can also help improve quality of life by reducing physical symptoms that interfere with daily tasks like driving or getting dressed, but it doesn’t just focus on pain management!
Palliative care does not mean giving up hope for a cure
One common misconception is that palliative care means giving up hope for a cure. It does not mean you should stop taking any treatments or stop planning for the future.
Palliative care can be helpful when your medical treatment is no longer working, and you are facing serious illness.
Palliative care can be helpful when treatments are no longer working.
Palliative care can be helpful when treatments are no longer working. When cancer starts to spread, or the side effects from chemotherapy become too difficult to handle, palliative care can help manage symptoms and pain.
It can also be useful for people in the final stages of a disease because it helps them feel less stressed and less afraid. In some cases, palliative care will support those dealing with grief after losing someone close to them; other times it may help patients find comfort during their last days on Earth.
Palliative care can work with the curative treatments
Patients often experience side effects from cancer treatments, including nausea and vomiting, hair loss, fatigue and low energy levels. These symptoms impact quality of life and can reduce the effectiveness of treatment.
Palliative care helps manage these side effects by treating the symptoms so patients can live better with their disease.
Palliative care is also useful for people who are living with chronic diseases such as diabetes or heart failure that don’t necessarily have a cure but need specific management strategies to keep them healthy for as long as possible.
In addition to treating symptoms like pain or fatigue, palliative care providers help patients improve their communication skills so they understand all aspects of their illness and what is needed for proper treatment (and if there’s no cure).
Conclusion
We understand that this is a complicated issue, and we hope our article has helped clarify some of your questions. If you think you might be interested in learning more about palliative care, please contact experts today. They would be happy to answer any questions or concerns that you may have.