Palliative Care

What is Palliative Care

For most people, ‘palliative’ isn’t an everyday word. This contributes to confusion about palliative care which is often mistakenly associated just with hospice and end-of-life care. While these are certainly part of it, palliative care also covers care and support given to the patient and their family from the time of diagnosis. Much of palliative care is about maintaining and improving the QoL (Quality of Life) of patients throughout the course of any life limiting illness. With effective management of physical pain, symptoms and the right psychological support; people with such illnesses can live full and rich lives for far longer than they otherwise would. That’s why palliative care is so remarkable.

It may also be called comfort or supportive care. Palliative doctors team up with your regular doctors to focus on symptoms like pain, trouble breathing and stress. You can receive palliative care at any stage in your disease and continue to get treatments to cure it. Palliative medicine is a whole-person care that gives you an extra layer of support so you and your family can live better.

Who Needs Palliative Care

In addition to improving QoL (Quality of Life) and helping with symptoms, palliative care can also be helpful to any older person having a lot of general discomfort and disability very late in life. It can be provided along with curative treatment. Our palliative care team is a multidisciplinary team that works with the patient, family and the patient’s other doctors to provide medical, social, emotional and practical support. The team is made of palliative care doctors, nurses, social workers, psychologists etc who work towards providing you and your loved ones treatment options to receive a better QoL (Quality of Life) at any stage of illness.