What is Palliative Care?

Palliative care is specialized medical care for people living with a serious illness. Its goal is to relieve pain, symptoms, and stress, and to improve quality of life for both the patient and the family. Palliative care can begin at any stage of an illness, including right at diagnosis, and it can be given alongside treatments meant to cure the illness.

Who can benefit from palliative care?

Anyone with a serious illness can benefit, whatever their age or prognosis. Common examples include cancer, heart failure, lung disease (COPD), kidney disease, dementia, Parkinson’s disease, ALS, and stroke. You may want to ask about palliative care if you or a loved one:

  • Has pain, shortness of breath, fatigue, nausea, or other symptoms that are hard to control
  • Is struggling with the side effects of treatment
  • Has been in the hospital or emergency room several times
  • Feels anxious, depressed, or overwhelmed by the illness
  • Needs help understanding choices, planning ahead, or coordinating care between doctors

What does palliative care include?

Palliative care is provided by a team that may include doctors, nurses, social workers, chaplains, and other specialists. They work with the patient’s own doctors and focus on:

  • Physical comfort: treating pain and symptoms such as nausea, breathlessness, and poor sleep
  • Emotional support: help with anxiety, depression, and the stress of serious illness, for the patient and the family
  • Practical help: explaining treatment choices, planning ahead with advance directives, and coordinating care
  • Spiritual support: for patients and families who want it

Palliative care and hospice: what is the difference?

Palliative care
Hospice care
When it starts
At any stage of a serious illness
When life expectancy is six months or less, if the illness runs its usual course
Curative treatment
Can continue alongside palliative care
Stops for the terminal illness; the focus is comfort
Where
Hospitals, clinics, and sometimes at home
Mostly at home or wherever the patient lives
How it is paid for
Like other medical visits, under Medicare Part B, Medicaid, or private insurance, with usual copays
The Medicare hospice benefit, Medicaid, and most insurance, with little or no cost for related care

Put simply: all hospice care is palliative care, but not all palliative care is hospice. Many people receive palliative care for months or years before hospice becomes the right choice, and some never need hospice at all.

How to get palliative care

Ask the patient’s doctor for a palliative care referral. Many hospitals have a palliative care team, and some hospices and home health agencies offer palliative care programs at home. You do not have to wait until treatment stops, and asking about palliative care does not mean a doctor thinks the illness is terminal.

When it may be time for hospice

If treatments are no longer working, or the burdens of treatment outweigh the benefits, hospice may be the next step. Learn more in What is Hospice? If you would like to talk with a hospice provider, call 1-800-HOSPICE (1-800-467-7423) or find a provider near you.