Palliative care is specialized medical care for people with serious illness. This type of care is focused on providing patients with relief from the symptoms, pain, and stress of a serious illness, whatever the diagnosis.
Overview
The goal is to improve quality of life for both the patient and the family. Palliative care is provided by a team of doctors, nurses, social workers, and other specialists who work with a patient’s other doctors to provide an extra layer of support. Palliative care is appropriate at any age and at any stage in serious illness, and can be provided together with curative treatment.
Our approach
Our board-certified palliative medicine physicians, nurses and clinical social workers offer palliative care in our palliative care clinic and also in the hospital.
Our services include:
- Treatments for relieving pain and other symptoms such as nausea, fatigue, breathlessness, depression, and anxiety
- Counseling and therapy for depression, anxiety, hopelessness, grief, and family challenges related to living with a serious medical illness
- Assistance and support in making difficult medical decisions
- Help in making sure that patients are as comfortable and active as possible
- Access to complementary treatments, such as guided imagery and self-hypnosis training
- Assistance with family challenges such as difficult communications, coping with the stress of a serious illness or the unique needs of children to understand and cope with the illness of a loved one
A leader in palliative/supportive care
Our program has a strong focus on education. We offer a palliative medicine fellowship and palliative clinical social work fellowship, in addition to training other health care professionals in palliative medicine.
Our program was designated as a Palliative Care Leadership Center™ by the Center to Advance Palliative Care in 2003. Through this program, we provide training in palliative care program development to teams from across the country.