Palliative Care: Support for a Serious Illness

When you're coping with a serious illness like cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or heart disease, you need many things to make your life better—like expert treatment for symptoms such as pain, shortness of breath or fatigue. You might also need emotional or spiritual support to ease the stress of your illness.

There is a specialized area of medicine that can give you all of those things and more: It's called palliative care.

The goal of palliative care is to improve the quality of life for those who are sick with a life-threatening or serious illness. It does that by preventing or treating the symptoms and side effects of a disease and its treatment as early as possible.

Palliative care also provides support for the caregivers of those who are ill.

It is different from hospice

Palliative care is not the same as hospice, which is a type of care that is generally only given at the end of life.

Hospice patients receive palliative care to help make their final months more comfortable.

But palliative care is for people who are trying to cure, slow or manage their disease—regardless of their life expectancy or prognosis.

It's a team effort

Palliative care specialists work in collaboration with the medical professionals—such as primary care providers—who are helping someone recover from or manage an illness or injury.

A palliative care team may include physicians; nurses; social workers; spiritual care coordinators; physical, speech or massage therapists; pharmacists; and dietitians.

Palliative care may be provided in any number of settings, including in a person's home, in a skilled-nursing facility, in an assisted-living facility, in a clinic or in a hospital.

Who pays?

Palliative care is covered under Medicare Part B. Most private insurance plans also offer coverage, but it's important to check the details of your individual insurance policy.

If you are interested in receiving palliative care or want to learn more about what's involved, speak with your primary care provider.

Sources: National Cancer Institute; National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization; World Health Organization