By Teresa Carr
Adams County Senior Council
Administrative Assistant
Information from the National Institute on Aging – What are Palliative Care and Hospice Care?
What is palliative care? Palliative care is focused on improving quality of life for people with serious illnesses and their care partners. It is available to people of any age who need it, not just older adults. The major elements of palliative care include managing a person’s symptoms effectively and ensuring that their care is coordinated.
Palliative care is interdisciplinary, which means that it involves multiple types of doctors and other care providers. These providers work together with patients and their families and care partners to ensure that the treatment plan reflects the person’s goals and values.
Palliative care can start as early as a person’s diagnosis or not until later in their illness, and it can occur alongside other types of treatment for the disease. This form of care includes, but is not limited to, advance care planning, end-of-life care, hospice care, and bereavement support.
What is hospice care? Increasingly, people are choosing hospice care at the end of life. Hospice care focuses on the care, comfort, and quality of life of a person with a serious illness who is approaching the end of life.
At some point, it may not be possible to cure a serious illness, or a patient may choose not to undergo certain treatments. Hospice is designed for this situation. The patient beginning hospice care understands that his or her illness is not responding to medical attempts to cure it or to slow the disease’s progress.
Like palliative care, hospice provides comprehensive comfort care as well as support for the family, but, in hospice, attempts to cure the person’s illness are stopped. Hospice is provided for a person with a terminal illness whose doctor believes he or she has six months or less to live if the illness runs its natural course.
It’s important for a patient to discuss hospice care options with their doctor. Sometimes, people don’t begin hospice care soon enough to take full advantage of the help it offers. Perhaps they wait too long to begin hospice and they are too close to death. Or, some people are not eligible for hospice care soon enough to receive its full benefit. Starting hospice early may be able to provide months of meaningful care and quality time with loved ones.
Advance care planning and end-of-life decisions. – When a person is diagnosed with a serious illness, they should prioritize early advance care planning conversations with their family and doctors. Studies have shown that patients who have participated in advance care planning are more likely to be satisfied with their care and have care that is aligned with their wishes.
Prepare for Your Care, funded in part by the National Institute on Aging, is an interactive online program that helps a person fill out an advance directive and express their wishes in writing. This tool is available in English and Spanish.
Just A Thought: “A tree is known by its fruit; a man by his deeds. A good deed is never lost; he who sows courtesy reaps friendship, and he who plants kindness gathers love.
