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Palliative Care 101

Keys to Understanding Palliative Care/Pain Relief and Management

Palliative Care 101

10 Things to Know about Palliative Care and Pain Management
 
Palliative Care/Pain Relief and Management is a comprehensive approach to treating seriously ill patients. It focuses on relieving patients’ pain and other distressing symptoms, as well as minimizing suffering by addressing a person’s psychological and spiritual needs.

Here are 10 defining features of Palliative Care/Pain Relief and Management:

1. Palliative care provides comfort and support to individuals facing a serious illness, chronic or life-threatening, and to their families.
2. Anyone with chronic illness can benefit from palliative care/pain relief and management – it’s not just for those who are dying or terminally ill.
3. It is a comprehensive approach that integrates the psychological, social and spiritual aspects of health care.
4. The emphasis is on effective ways to relieve pain and other distressing symptoms.
5. A palliative care program seeks to maximize functioning.
6. Palliative care programs support advance-care planning that is individualized and appropriate.
7. Palliative care regards dying as a natural process.
8. Palliative care/pain relief and management programs incorporate traditional concerns of hospice, helping individuals live as fully and comfortably as possible.
9. Palliative care helps families cope during the illness and bereavement periods.
10. Much palliative care/pain relief and management does occur at the end of life, although “end of life” may extend from a few hours to many years.