What is palliative care?

Palliative care improves the quality of life of patients and their families with advanced illness or life-threatening injury. Palliative care prevents and relieves suffering through early identification, assessment, and expert treatment of pain and other challenges: physical, psycho-social, and spiritual.

Palliative care includes:

• The affirmation of life and regard for dying as a normal process
• The intent to neither hasten nor postpone death
• Care throughout the continuum of illness in conjunction with curative therapies
• Availability of interventions early in the course of illness to assist with symptom management or advance care planning
• The use of an interdisciplinary team approach to address the comprehensive needs of patients and families.
  
  This approach includes:
  • assessment and management of patient’s pain and other distressing symptoms
  • integration of the psychological and spiritual aspects of patientand family care
  • offering asupport system to help patients live as fully as possible
  • offering a support system to help the family cope during the patient’s illness and in their bereavement

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