What is Palliative Care?

Palliative care is an approach to serious illness that helps restore our ability to live our lives to the fullest, regardless of the results of our medical treatments. A serious illness can limit our lives in many ways. Physical symptoms such as pain, shortness of breath, loss of appetite, or fatigue can make it difficult or impossible to concentrate on the people and events in our lives that are most important to us. Worries or fears about the future can be distracting or even overwhelming at times, leaving little mental energy for our normal interests. Family members and friends can be affected by our illness as well, with their own worries or fears about what might happen to us, exhausted by the need to take care of us or take over for the tasks we can no longer do ourselves, or feeling awkward in our presence, not knowing what to say.

Palliative care employs the skills of a wide variety of health care professionals to minimize these effects. By freeing us as much as possible from the physical, psychological, spiritual, and social burdens of illness, palliative care can, in a real sense, “give us our life back,” even as we continue to pursue medical treatments to cure the underlying disease, or—if a cure is not possible—to continue to be the person that we are, as much and for as long as possible throughout the course of the illness, to the very end of our life.

The resources for palliative care on this website represent the many dimensions of palliative care, including the most effective and up-to-date treatments for physical symptoms; responsive, compassionate care and support for psychological and spiritual concerns; and support for those around us who may also be affected by our illness. There is no need for any person or family to have to bear the burdens of serious illness alone. The information on this website can direct you to the help you need and deserve.