What is Palliative Care?
Palliative care is available when someone is told that they have a life limiting illness. It involves care and support to help the person manage their health problems that they may have and to help improve the quality of life for them and their family.
'Palliative care’
- Provides relief from pain and other symptoms.
- It supports the person to live their life as actively as possible until death.
- Does not quicken or delay death.
- Joins the emotional and spiritual side of the person’s care, known as the holistic approach (whole person).
- Offers a support system to help patients live as actively as possible until death.
- Offers a support system to help the family cope during the patient's illness and in their own bereavement.
- Uses a team approach to support the person and their family, including bereavement counselling, if required.
- Can support the person early in the course of illness, alongside other treatments that are intended to prolong life, such as chemotherapy or radiation therapy.
Planning for the end of life
End of life care is the support provided to a person who is in the last year, months, weeks, or days of their life whereas palliative care can be provided at any stage in someones life limiting illness journey.
Planning what someone wants at end of life is known as ‘advance care planning’ or ‘personalised care planning’ and involves thinking and talking about your what you might like and how you might like to be cared for in the final months of your life. This can include treatments you do not want to have as well as where you would like to receive your care and who you would like to be involved. You may wish to think about practical matters, such as financial planning, support for your children/family and pets, or help in the house.
Planning like this can help you let people know your wishes and feelings while you’re still able to do so. This is likely to be more than one discussion and will be done over a period of time. It is also possible that your wishes and feelings change over time and therefore these can be changed.
Involving your family and those important to you in conversations about your wishes could help them if they ever need to make decisions about your care.
Many healthcare staff provide palliative and end of life care as part of their role in looking after you.
These could include:
- Doctor (GP)
- Community or District Nurses
- Physiotherapists or Occupational Therapists
- Social Workers
- Hospital Consultants and Doctors
- Hospital Nurses
- Hospice teams
Further Information
