Palliative care

What’s palliative care?

Palliative care, also called supportive care, offers help and comfort to people with a serious health condition. Palliative care doesn’t mean you stop treatment. You’ll determine your next steps with help from your doctor while you live the best you can.

Difference between palliative care and hospice

Both hospice and palliative care help improve quality of life for you and provide support for you and your family. Palliative care is for anyone with a serious illness. Hospice care happens at the end of life if you’re no longer getting treatment to heal your condition.

How palliative care helps

Rely on the caring team at ProHealth to help you:

• Understand your condition and what to expect.
• Explore your treatment options and treatment effects.
• Align your treatment plan with your goals and personal values.
• Communicate with your care team.
• Manage pain and other symptoms.
• Cope with emotional and spiritual challenges.
• Create advance directives.

Should I seek palliative care?

People of any age and at any stage of their diagnosis can benefit from palliative care. You may consider this care if you have a life-threatening or chronic health condition such as:

• Cancer
• Heart failure and vascular disease
• HIV/AIDS
• Kidney disease
• Liver disease
• Lung disease, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD)
• Neurological conditions, such as stroke, dementia, Alzheimer’s, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or Parkinson’s disease

Your care team          

Rely on staff with advanced training in palliative care. You can benefit from the support of professionals including:

• Palliative medicine doctor
• Nurse practitioner
• Registered nurse
• Social worker
• Chaplain (spiritual care provider)