Palliative care is a whole-person approach that aims to make life better for those with serious illnesses like cancer. It is often called supportive care or symptom management, and its main goal is to ease pain and improve well-being throughout an illness, whether during treatment or after it is over.
You can start this kind of care at any time during your illness, from the first diagnosis to the end, and it will give you the support you need. You can better handle the difficulties of treatment and have a more comfortable, supported experience if you know what palliative care is.
PC= PELIATIVE CARE
What is care that makes you feel better?
Palliative care is a type of medical care that focuses on making people with serious illnesses as comfortable as possible and improving their quality of life. The major goal is to enable people live their lives to the fullest by efficiently managing symptoms and negative effects.
The palliative care team works with your doctors and nurses to make sure that you and your loved ones get the help you need. This involves controlling symptoms, helping with emotions, and giving advice on how to make decisions, all of which are part of advance care planning.
Who Can Get Palliative Care?
PC can help anyone who is sick with a major illness like cancer, heart failure, or kidney disease. It doesn’t matter how old you are, what stage of sickness you’re in, or how bad it is; you should get help whenever you have symptoms that need care, are feeling bad emotionally, or need more support.
People with complicated medical problems that influence their physical, emotional, social, and spiritual health can benefit the most from it. These problems are often too big for normal medical therapies to handle.
Important Questions to Ask Your Cancer Care Team About Palliative Care
If you’re thinking about getting palliative care, here are some questions that might help you talk to your cancer care team:
- What exact symptoms will palliative care help with?
- How will it function with my cancer treatment?
- What are the goals and results of palliative care for me?
- What kind of help will my family and caregivers be able to get?
Palliative Care and Hospice Care
Palliative and hospice care both work to improve quality of life and ease symptoms, but they are not the same in some important ways:
Things that are the same
Palliative and hospice care both focus on making patients comfortable, relieving their discomfort, and controlling side effects. Both also offer a compassionate, all-around way to meet emotional, spiritual, and physical requirements, and they are done by professional care teams.
Differences
PC is accessible at any time in the illness, from diagnosis to therapy. It can be given with curative treatment to help control symptoms while the disease is being treated.
Hospice care, on the other hand, is meant for the last stages of an illness that can’t be cured, usually when medicines that could cure the sickness are no longer an option. The focus changes from vigorous therapy to managing symptoms and providing comfort care.
Palliative Care with Cancer: A Key Part of Cancer Treatment
People with cancer should get palliative treatment as soon as possible. It doesn’t directly attack the disease, but it is very important for dealing with the physical and mental problems that come up during the cancer journey. Many specialists say that people with cancer should start palliative care as soon as they find out they have it. This is to help with symptoms as soon as possible.
When cancer is advanced, doctors recommend getting a palliative care team involved within the first 8 weeks of diagnosis to make sure that symptoms are managed early and overall health is improved.
What Palliative Care Does to Help with Symptoms and Side Effects
Your PC team will work with you closely to:
- Help with physical problems like pain, nausea, or trouble breathing
- Give emotional support to help you deal with the stress, anxiety, and despair that may come up during your therapy.
- Talk about any spiritual issues that may come up because of your condition.
- Help with real-life problems like money issues, work problems, and insurance issues.
- Help people make decisions about their future care, like filling out advance directives.
- If you need to go to hospice care, make the transition as easy as possible when all other treatment options have been tried or your health has gotten worse.
PC may help families and caregivers deal with the emotional stress of caregiving and provide them the tools they need to make sure they get the care they need as well.
Things to think about for kids, teens, and young adults
Palliative Care for Kids with Cancer
When a child is diagnosed with cancer, it doesn’t only affect them; it affects the whole family. PC for kids focuses on improving quality of life, meeting the needs of both the child and the family, and managing the symptoms and side effects of treatment. The team also helps with talking to siblings about the diagnosis and making sure that schools and social services are included in the care.
Care for Teens and Young Adults Who Are Dying
PC can help teens and young adults with cancer deal with the specific problems they face. Teens may feel alone and have trouble being independent while yet needing help from their parents. The PC team can help young adults deal with worries about money, relationships, work, and their future family life.
The Advantages of Palliative Care
Studies have shown that palliative care is good for both relieving symptoms and improving emotional health. People who get palliative treatment feel:
- Fewer trips to the hospital: Research shows that persons who get PC spend less time in ICUs or emergency rooms.
- Better symptom management: Cancer patients say that PC helps them better manage symptoms including pain and exhaustion.
- Improved emotional health: PC can make you feel better emotionally by making sure that medical care is in line with your values and making families happier with the care they get.
- Longer life: Some research suggests that getting PC early on may potentially help some people live longer.
Who Gives Palliative Care?
Your oncologist or cancer care team will normally start you on PC. At first, they might be able to help with basic symptom treatment. But if you need more extensive PC, you can be sent to specialists.
There may be different kinds of professionals in the PC team:
- Doctors who work in palliative care
- Nurse practitioners or helpers to doctors
- Nurses who know how to handle symptoms
- Chaplain and social worker
- Dietitians and anyone who help patients find their way
- Therapists who use music
For kids and teens, specialists like child-life therapists may also be brought in to help with the emotional and social requirements of younger patients.
Where do people get palliative care?
Depending on your situation, you can get PC in a number of places. These are:
- Emergency rooms or hospitals
- Centers for treating cancer
- Clinics for people who don’t need to stay overnight
- Visits to the home
PC teams are visiting patients at home more and more often, giving them care in a place they know and are comfortable with. Nursing homes, assisted living institutions, and retirement communities also offer home care.
Does insurance pay for palliative care?
Many private and government insurance plans, such as Medicare, Medicaid, and VA benefits, pay for PC. Depending on where you live, your insurance company, and the type of treatment you get, your coverage may be different. It’s important to talk to your insurance company to make sure you understand the details of your policy.
Getting Palliative Care
Your cancer treatment team can help you find PC services. If your facility doesn’t have them, they will probably send you to an outside service that specializes in PC.
If you think you or someone you care about could benefit from PC but haven’t been offered it, don’t be afraid to ask. Advocate for your needs, because PC may make a big difference in both your quality of life and your emotional health during a hard time.
You may also find palliative care information and referral services by searching:
- ACS: Find Support Programs and Services in Your Area
- Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC): Palliative Care Provider Directory
It’s also important to contact your insurance company to check if you are eligible for these services and to get a list of palliative care providers, teams, or centers in your insurance network.