Palliative care can benefit people who are not terminally ill. A landmark study published in 2010 showed that people who received standard cancer treatment plus early palliative care—versus cancer treatment alone—reported significantly better quality of life and mood. They also tended to live longer, despite receiving less aggressive care.
Palliative Care
Palliative (comfort) care is provided by a team of doctors, nurses, social workers and chaplains who work together to provide relief from the symptoms, pain and stresses of serious illness for patients and their families.
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PearlPoint Cancer Support answeredAt some point in your cancer journey, you may need to consider palliative care or hospice. Palliative care is a treatment that helps relieve pain and symptoms and can be used along with your prescribed cancer treatment.
Hospice is a type of palliative care. Specifically, hospice is end-of-life care. Both palliative care and hospice aim to improve quality of life. Talk with your healthcare team about what is best for you.
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PearlPoint Cancer Support answered
If you have cancer, you may want to consider asking your healthcare team the following questions about palliative care:
- Should I consider palliative care now or in the near future?
- Will my insurance cover my palliative care?
- For how long can I get palliative care?
- Where will I get my palliative care?
- Can I still get treatment for my cancer while receiving palliative care?
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MyDirectives answeredIf you are living with serious illness or are simply planning ahead for your own or a loved one's future, having a frank discussion with your doctor is a good idea. Putting things into words, getting more information and asking questions can help you get the kind of medical treatments you want.
Here are some questions to ask your doctor about palliative care:
- What is palliative care?
- What are the goals of palliative care?
- Who is eligible for palliative care?
- What services are provided through palliative care consultation?
- How may I access palliative care services?
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UCLA Health answeredThere are a few practical steps you can take to prepare for palliative care.- Complete an advance healthcare directive, a legal document in which you make your medical wishes known, and identify a surrogate decision maker, also called an agent, to help communicate your medical wishes.
- Discuss your medical wishes with this person and other close family and friends, as well as your doctor.
- Keep copies of your advance directive at home and with your agent, doctor and local hospital.
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See All 2 AnswersPalliative care aims to improve quality of life, optimize function and assist with decision making for patients and families while the patient is receiving appropriate medical treatment. An interdisciplinary team focuses on intensive symptoms management, enhancement of function, promotion of physical and psychological comfort, as well as the provision of psychosocial, spiritual and emotional support for the patient and family.
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Dr. William D. Knopf, MD , Cardiology (Cardiovascular Disease), answered on behalf of Piedmont Heart InstituteSee All 2 AnswersComfort care is a term for the care given to improve the quality of life of patients who have a serious or life-threatening disease. The goal of comfort care is to prevent or treat as early as possible the symptoms of a disease, side effects caused by treatment of a disease, and psychological, social, and spiritual problems related to a disease or its treatment. Also called supportive care and symptom management.
This answer is based upon source information from the National Cancer Institute.
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UCLA Health answered
Teams typically include physicians and nurses as well as chaplains, social workers and other allied professionals on an as-needed basis. In terms of what they address, certainly pain is a very common symptom and an important part of palliative care, but not everyone, even at the end stage of a disease, has pain. From the physical perspective, palliative-care teams also manage fatigue, nausea, constipation, dehydration, non-healing skin sores, shortness of breath and dry mouth, to name a few.
It’s not just physical symptoms, though. There is also anxiety, depression and confusion. We manage psychological distress, which can simply mean providing assistance in coping with the stresses and demands of the situation. And palliative care also addresses existential or spiritual distress—whatever, for the individual, it means to be facing off with his or her mortality.
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PearlPoint Cancer Support answered
If you have terminal cancer, you may want to consider asking your healthcare team the following questions about hospice:
- Should I consider hospice care now or in the near future?
- Will insurance cover my hospice care?
- If my life expectancy is longer than six months, can I still get hospice care?
- Can I get hospice care in my home?
- Who will be caring for me? Will they be doctors, nurses, social workers or home-health aides?
- What legal issues such as advanced directives, living wills or medical power of attorney should I think about?
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Jumo Health answeredA palliative care doctor helps people and their family understand their condition and what to expect. A palliative care doctor will prescribe medicine or other treatments when needed.