Modern medicine can treat and cure countless health conditions, but it can’t always repair the quality-of-life impairments these conditions leave behind.
Palliative care is a health care service designed to fill those gaps by improving a patient’s quality of life. While they aren’t there to cure your disease, palliative care providers can help you manage symptoms and treatment side effects, plan for future medical interventions, prepare for end of life and more.
[READ: How to Choose and Questions to Ask a Hospice Provider Near You]
What Does Palliative Care Do?
Palliative care focuses on providing relief from symptoms, pain and stress of a serious illness.
Dr. Akanksha Sharma, a board-certified neurologist, neuro-oncologist and palliative medicine doctor at the Pacific Neuroscience Institute in Santa Monica, California, describes palliative care as “the art of alleviating suffering.”
“It is a field focused on ensuring that those who go through serious illness — regardless of whether it is life limiting or not — have support and expertise to help them navigate any type of physical, emotional, social or spiritual distress,” Sharma says. “In this way, palliative care improves quality of life and eases the journey of not just the patient, but also of loved ones involved in their care.”
Some supportive services offered through palliative care include:
— Symptom (such as pain) tracking and management
— Care coordination
— Health care navigation
— Communication
— Assistance with decision-making
— Assistance with advance care planning
— Skilled nursing, such as wound care
— Spiritual guidance
Diseases and illnesses covered by palliative care include:
— Cancer
— Heart failure
— Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease
— COPD
[READ Pain and the Mind-Body Connection]
What Doesn’t Palliative Care Do?
Palliative care teams do not provide services meant to cure your condition. However, they do not preclude you from seeking curative treatments simultaneously, either.
For instance, if you have a cancer diagnosis and your oncologist recommends chemotherapy, a palliative care team can complement your oncology team by helping you manage the side effects of treatment, while your oncologist focuses on administering the lifesaving treatment.
One exception is hospice care, a type of palliative care intended for people preparing for end of life and who choose not to receive life-saving interventions. Hospice care prioritizes the patient’s comfort without trying to alter the course of their illness if their condition takes a turn for the worse.
However, if you are in hospice care, you are not bound to stay there. You may leave hospice care in pursuit of other treatment interventions at any time. The same is true for general palliative care — you can stop at any time.
[READ: What to Say to Someone Who Is Dying]
Misconceptions About Palliative Care
Many people have a lack of awareness or hold misconceptions about palliative care. As a result, Sharma says they may not fully grasp what this service entails — or know how and when it can help them.
“When you are not aware of palliative care, you are missing out on a whole world of specialists who can help you navigate the overwhelming, complicated and scary health care world,” Sharma says. “Working with a palliative care specialist means working with someone who sees your journey and your needs first, and helps you make sense of the health care world as it relates to you and your illness.”
Sharma adds that people often assume that all forms of palliative care are hospice care, when in reality hospice is a unique subtype of the service.
Palliative care vs. hospice care
While people may seek palliative care at any point during a serious illness, hospice care is reserved for people who are presumed to be near the end of life.
Unique qualifications for hospice care, that are not required to undergo other palliative care services include:
— Facing a terminal illness with a prognosis of less than six months to live
— A decision to cease active disease-directed treatments and related medical appointments
In contrast, Dr. Brian D. Madden, a primary care physician and medical director of palliative care at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, California, says that people can qualify for non-hospice palliative care services if they are experiencing serious illness that impacts their quality of life, regardless of their prognosis. However, if and when necessary — and if desired by the patient — people can transition from more-general palliative care to hospice care, Madden adds.
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Can You Get Palliative Care at Home?
You can receive palliative care in various settings, such as in a hospital, clinic or your home. Some palliative care teams may offer multiple options for how and where you receive care, whereas others may have more limited choices. Sharma explains that seeing a palliative care expert is similar to seeing another medical specialist, with the format of care dependent on the practice and individualized for each patient.
Home-based palliative care is available through some health systems, and may be a good option if you are looking for extra support. Home-based providers may be able to go the extra mile by spending time with patients outside of scheduled appointments or clinic hours, or sometimes 24/7. They may also be able to more effectively assist you with daily living activities. However, not all palliative care teams have the bandwidth to provide home-based services.
Because they are comprised of medical professionals, Madden says that “palliative care teams are most common in a hospital, providing support to hospitalized patients with acute or critical illness.”
If you prefer to receive palliative care at home, contact your provider or check their website to see if they offer at-home care services.
[READ: Does Medicare Cover Home Health Care?]
Who Should Pursue Palliative Care?
Technically, most people with serious illnesses can receive palliative care. But in reality, not everyone who needs it will receive it. This may be due to a lack of awareness on palliative care qualifications — paired with a shortage of palliative care providers, Sharma says.
“Honestly, we can all benefit from palliative care,” Sharma says. “Sign me up. But there are not enough palliative care specialists yet.”
Balancing supply and demand, she recommends starting to think about palliative care if you are “struggling with a serious illness to the point that it is impacting (your) quality of life and ability to function.”
For example, Sharma says this can be relevant to people with various diagnoses, ranging from inflammatory bowel disease to post-car accident injuries.
While those conditions may not be “life limiting or terminal,” they are still “life-changing” and can impact a person’s quality of life, Sharma adds.
People with multiple co-occurring chronic conditions or who are in remission from cancer can also qualify for palliative care, she says.
Whatever the illness, palliative care can step in as a supportive service to help manage symptoms, make decisions and navigate life after a major diagnosis.
Essentially any health condition that has “turned your life upside down,” where you could use additional support and guidance, warrants palliative care, Sharma adds. “Palliative care can help you step back and look at the big picture.”
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What Is Palliative Care, and Can You Get It at Home? originally appeared on usnews.com
