Palliative Care
Care that focuses on managing symptoms, such as pain or shortness of breath, and on improving quality of life is called palliative care.
Any member of your health care team—doctor, nurse or social worker—can provide palliative care. It is most often given along with care that aims to lengthen life. Sometimes, your team may include or recommend a provider who is a specialist in this care.
Palliative care includes:
- Medications and treatments to relieve symptoms
- Treatments to help you and your family cope with serious illness
- Talking with you and your family to understand your priorities, to answer questions and to help make decisions
If you have heart disease, you may wonder what to expect or worry about your health. You could benefit from planning your care, including preparing for a time when you might be unable to speak for yourself (advance care planning).
Palliative care is a philosophy of care:
- It focuses on quality of life and controlling symptoms when someone has a serious illness.
Palliative care is complementary care:
- It does not take the place of the care team focused on treating the disease (for example, the cardiologist) but rather adds experts to the team. It’s an extra layer of support.
- It does not mean that the health team or patient is no longer striving for a cure.
—World Health Organization
Palliative care is holistic care addressing the physical, emotional, and spiritual aspects of a disease for patients and their caregivers or relatives. It is given both in and out of the hospital. Palliative care improves coordination of care so that all of your providers are up to speed on what’s happening with you.
Use this resource to learn more about palliative care and steps you can take to be ready for the future.
- Last Edited 03/30/2018