Palliative care (defined by the National Institute on Aging) is specialized medical care for people living with a serious illness, such as cancer or heart failure. Patients in palliative care may receive medical care for their symptoms, or palliative care, along with treatment intended to cure their serious illness. Palliative care is meant to enhance a person’s current care by focusing on quality of life for them and their family.
Also known as your team of doctors, your medical director oversees your plan of care and ensures you are receiving effective pain and symptom management.
Central person and go to in the family's planning. It helps you feel as comfortable as possible and empowers you to make treatment choices on your own.
Provides counseling and support, suggests healthy coping tools, and facilitates difficult conversations with family and healthcare professionals about care.
Offers spiritual and emotional support to the patients and their families. Provides contacts and connects with local faith communities.
At Community Healthcare Professionals, our goal is to give you or your loved ones the tools and resources to help control your sickness, achieve your health goals, and live life to the fullest based on your doctor’s orders and clinical needs. We supply support at all levels to make this time as easy as possible.
Your palliative care team will focus on helping you reduce your symptoms and stress. Their goal is to relieve suffering while providing you with the best quality of life. In some cases, this can even improve your response to your medical care. Many times patients ask themselves why they didn’t begin palliative care earlier.
Patients with severe illness can receive palliative care at any time during their illness. The best way to know if you need palliative care is by talking to your physician. Here are some of the types of patients we see.
This might include prescribing medication or using other methods to address pain and symptoms like disorientation, fatigue, loss of appetite, nausea, and shortness of breath.
Early palliative care is associated with a lower risk of depression in people newly diagnosed with advanced illness. National Library of Medicine
Palliative care can include instructional guidance and emotional support for family members caring for a loved one with a serious illness.
Research suggests that early palliative care may help people live longer. In fact, it shows that because depression and mortality rates are connected, it may not only reduce the risk of depression but also may prolong survival.
According to research, a home care program that featured house visits reduced 30-day readmissions by 25%. Moreover, palliative care that is readily available minimizes trips to the emergency department.
Palliative care specialists provide support to people diagnosed with a serious illness and their families in order to make decisions about care, treatment for their illness, and support in emotionally coping with the diagnosis.
Palliative care may be right for you if you are experiencing pain, stress, and other symptoms due to a serious illness. Serious illnesses include but are not limited to: cancer, cardiac disease, respiratory disease, kidney failure, Alzheimer’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and multiple sclerosis. Palliative care is appropriate at any stage of a serious illness, and we can provide it alongside treatment meant to cure you. It has been proven to improve quality of life, extend life in the setting of cancer, and reduce health care costs by aligning treatment options with patients’ goals.
You can be on palliative care for as long as you want. Typically, patients are in palliative care until they begin hospice.
You continue to see your primary doctor, who directs your care and plays an active role in your treatment. Our palliative care team provides an extra layer of support and works in partnership with, not in place of, your primary doctor.
Most insurance plans cover all or part of the palliative care treatment you receive, just as with other hospital and medical services. This is also true for Medicare and Medicaid. If costs concern you, a social worker from your palliative care team can talk to you about payment options.
Palliative care works collaboratively with your current healthcare providers to ensure that each aspect of your treatment plan and care is communicated and coordinated effectively. Palliative care is unique in that we specialize in assisting patients with their serious illness journeys by helping relieve symptoms that may include physical or emotional pain, fatigue, loss of appetite, difficulty sleeping, or depression related to serious illness.
We are ready to help you and your loved one with loving healthcare. Simply fill out this form below and a Community Healthcare Professional will get in touch with you shortly.
Our goal is to deliver the best care for our patients – whether they need home health, private duty, palliative, hospice, or personal care services.
