What you need to know about Palliative Care

Key takeaways: What palliative care is and how it helps

• Definition (WHO-aligned): An approach to improve quality of life for patients and their families dealing with life-threatening illnesses by preventing and relieving suffering.
• Core method: Early identification, assessment, and treatment of:
  • Physical suffering (e.g., pain, nausea/vomiting, delirium)
  • Psychosocial distress
  • Spiritual concerns

Who can receive palliative care

Anyone with life-threatening illnesses, including:

• Advanced cancer
• Chronic organ failure (kidney, heart, liver failure)
• Frailty-related illnesses (advanced dementia, Parkinson’s disease)

Where it can be provided

• Home
• Nursing homes
• Hospices
• Specialist clinics
• Community hospitals
• Acute hospitals

Wellness / self-care and supportive strategies mentioned

• Symptom management
  • Medication to treat pain and other distressing symptoms (including nausea/vomiting and delirium)
• Support for complex decisions
  • Assistance with advanced care planning and complex decision-making
• Psychosocial support
  • Help patients and families cope with illness
• Grief and bereavement support
  • Support after loss
• Team-based care (multidisciplinary approach)
  • Care delivered by a team, commonly including:
    • Doctors, nurses, social workers
    • Therapists such as physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech therapists, music/art therapists
    • Dietitians and psychologists

Principles of palliative care

• Affirms life and treats dying as a normal process
• Neither hastens nor postpones death
• Focuses on enhancing quality of care through active management of symptoms
• Uses a team approach to address patient and family needs

Presenters / Sources

• World Health Organization (WHO) (definition referenced)