There are terms used when describing palliative care and assumptions that people make about palliative care that need to be explained.
We have created a series of bite-sized responses that we hope to help you feel comfortable talking about palliative care.
If you have been told your health may not improve or you have a life limiting or terminal illness, you may be offered palliative care. The healthcare professionals caring for you will offer to talk to you (and anyone else you would like to be involved) about what this means for you.
The aim of palliative care is to maximise your quality of life by treating and relieving the symptoms and side effects of your illness, combined with supporting you and your family/carer practically and emotionally.
Accepting a referral simply means you will receive additional support to promote your quality of life, based on your individual choices, so you can live as fully as possible for as long as possible. It can be provided alongside active treatment of your condition such as chemotherapy.
Palliative care services actively promote choice and control over personal decisions, putting you at the centre of everything.
You may hear the term end of life care. This is care for people who are thought to be in the last year of life, not just last days or weeks of life, to help people live as well as possible and to die with dignity. The last year of life can be difficult to predict as it will depend on the person and their underlying condition.
People can receive palliative care alongside any ongoing treatment or drug therapies at any point of their diagnosis of advanced illness. It promotes comfort and the best quality of life for as long as possible.
Palliative care is designed to help the chosen family and friends of the person who is ill as well. If someone close to you has an advanced illness, it can have a big impact on you and you may need help and support.
Palliative care is an approach rather than a specific treatment. It involves a combination of care and support that looks after all the important aspects of a person’s well-being.
Palliative care does not mean you will die more quickly. It provides comfort and the best possible quality of life from your diagnosis until the end of your life. In fact evidence from research has shown that palliative care can extend someone’s life alongside active treatment.
Palliative care is delivered by different types of healthcare teams, such as GPs and District Nurses, as well as by specialists, in peoples’ homes, care homes, hospitals or hospices.
