Palliative care is a type of medical care that helps people with serious illnesses and their families get through their illness. It’s also called comfort care or supportive care, and it includes:
Palliative Care: The basics
Simply put, palliative care is a form of treatment. It focuses on improving the quality of life for patients and their families experiencing serious illness. Specifically, it provides relief from physical and psychosocial symptom that accompany serious illnesses. They may include both pain and stress. It is often focusing on patients’ strengths. Therefore, it enables them to remain at home rather than entering into a hospital setting at the end of their lives.
Palliative care differs from hospice care in that it doesn’t focus solely on end-of-life issues. It serves, instead, as an ongoing support system for patients throughout their terminal illness journey. Even if they don’t reach the point where hospice services are necessary.
Palliative care focuses not only on relieving pain but also addressing other symptoms. These include fatigue or nausea.
Who is palliative care for?
This type of care is for people with serious illnesses, such as cancer and heart disease. Palliative care helps people live better while they are still living. When it is time to go, it can help ease that transition.
Palliative care can be helpful to people with chronic health problems like Alzheimer’s disease or dementia. These patients may no longer recognize friends and family members but still need human contact. It may also provide comfort for someone who has a terminal condition but does not want to spend his remaining time in the hospital or nursing home.
You can treat symptoms
It’s important to note that palliative care does not replace symptom treatment. If a person is still receiving treatment for their symptoms, they can still get it. This may also help them manage side effects of their treatment. In fact, palliative care is often used in conjunction with other therapies like chemotherapy or radiation therapy.
This means that even if you are receiving traditional treatments for your cancer (or any other serious illness), it’s possible for you to receive this type of care as well.
It makes you more comfortable
In simple words, it’s about making you feel better. Palliative care focuses on the quality of your life, not the quantity.
If you have a terminal illness, palliative care may help with pain and other symptoms that might interfere with your daily activities or comfort level.
For example: Some cancer patients found that there was a lot of attention paid to their physical symptoms (pain). The same did not apply to how they affected their mental health. Their doctor would of course prescribe medication for the pain. However, it wasn’t until after therapy sessions with a psychologist that they really began to see things differently. They often then understand how overwhelming everything was.
Anyone with a serious illness can get it
Palliative care is for people with a serious, incurable illness. It’s also for people of all ages, backgrounds, genders and ethnicities.
You don’t have to be old or sick to benefit from palliative care: it can help you no matter what your age or health status. Some people see palliative care as part of end-of-life care. And we here at Myend couldn’t agree more. That’s why we have curated a variety of planners to empower people facing their end.
End-of-life & palliative care
Palliative care is an important part of caring for someone with a serious illness. It means providing the best possible quality of life for people who are living with a life-limiting illness. But it’s not just about managing pain. It’s also about treating the symptoms and side effects of your condition. Examples of these can be nausea, breathlessness and dizziness.
The aim isn’t just to keep you comfortable – it’s also about helping you feel less anxious or depressed about what’s happening to your body. Your family will be involved in any decisions made about your treatment plan; they may be able to take on some tasks so that you can relax or enjoy more time together without worrying too much about practical matters like shopping or housekeeping.
End-of-life care & health care providers
Health care providers (HCPs) are important members of palliative care teams. HCPs include doctors, nurses and other health professionals who work with patients and their families to manage symptoms and side effects.
Patients in palliative care often need help managing pain or other symptoms that affect their quality of life. HCPs can also provide support for family members as they learn how best to support the patient at home during this difficult time.
Final Thoughts
Palliative care is a treatment option for people with life-limiting illnesses. It focuses on comfort and quality of life for patients, their families and caregivers. Palliative care helps relieve symptoms such as pain and other symptoms caused by serious illness or disability.
It can also help you make medical decisions, manage your finances, work with family members or friends who are also caring for you, find resources that can help manage stress levels, improve relationships with others in your life and much more! However, palliative care is only a small part of end-of-life planning. Myend offers full planning services for your end-of-life. Sign up for free today and see for yourself!
