What is palliative care?
End-of-life care includes palliative care. If you have an illness that can’t be cured, palliative care makes you as comfortable as possible, by managing your symptoms. It also involves psychological, social and spiritual support for you and your family or carers.
Palliative care isn’t just for the end of life – you may receive palliative care earlier in your illness, while you are still receiving other therapies to treat your condition.
Who provides palliative care?
Many healthcare professionals provide palliative care as part of their jobs. It is part of our job and our nurses’ to care for palliative patients. Some people need additional specialist palliative care. This may be provided by consultants trained in palliative medicine, specialist palliative care nurses, or specialist occupational therapists or physiotherapists.
Palliative care teams are made up of different healthcare professionals and can coordinate the care of people by working together.
