Palliative Care is a unique program for patients with advanced illness that provides medical care at home. It focuses on providing patients with relief from the symptoms, pain, and stress of a serious illness. The goal is to improve the quality of life for both the patient and their family members, reduce burdensome hospital admissions and emergency room visits when care can be better delivered at home. This specially trained team of doctors, nurses and other specialists work together with the patient’s doctors to provide an extra layer of support at home.
Palliative Care treats people suffering from serious and chronic illnesses such as dementia, stroke, cancer, heart failure, COPD and kidney failure. We assess and treat symptoms such as pain, shortness of breath, fatigue, constipation, nausea, loss of appetite, difficulty sleeping and depression. Our team also provides support and guidance to family caregivers struggling with the serious illness of their loved one.
Palliative Care is for A Wide Variety of Patients
- Those patients who have been diagnosed with a complex, serious illness who desire relief from pain or symptoms associated with the disease.
- Those who need to make difficult decisions about how to proceed with care and treatment.
- Persons living with chronic conditions (such as: peripheral vascular disease, cancer, chronic renal or liver failure, COPD, advanced heart disease, and stroke).
- Persons living with end-stage dementia, terminal cancer or peripheral vascular disease, who are ;unlikely to recover or stabilize, and whose intensive palliative care is the predominant focus and goal of care.
- Alzheimer’s with poor functional status and one or more hospitalizations in the last six months.
- Educational needs.
- Limited social support in setting of a serious illness.
- Pain and symptom management including side-effect management.