What is Palliative Care?
Palliative care is a special type of service that addresses the pain, symptoms, and stress that can accompany such serious illnesses as:
- Cancer
- Congestive Heart Failure
- Emphysema (COPD) and other lung diseases
- Kidney Failure
- Liver Failure
- Dementia
- Neurological Diseases (ALS, Multiple Sclerosis or Parkinson’s Disease)
- and many other serious illnesses
Much like hospice, the goal of palliative care is to ease the physical, psychological, spiritual, and practical burdens of illness to improve quality of life. Expert treatment of pain and symptoms such as nausea, fatigue, shortness-of-breath, depression, and anxiety can help keep patients as comfortable and active as possible so they can pursue meaningful daily activities.