What Is Palliative Care?

You can fight the illness and be comfortable at the same time. That’s palliative care.

Palliative care is specialized relief from the symptoms and stress of serious illness — pain, nausea, fatigue, shortness of breath, anxiety — at any stage of the disease, not just the end of life. That’s the key difference from hospice: with palliative care, your loved one can keep pursuing full treatment — chemotherapy, dialysis, surgery — while a palliative team works alongside their doctors to control symptoms, coordinate care, and help the family think through hard decisions. It’s delivered in hospitals, clinics, and increasingly at home, and it’s generally covered by Medicare and private insurance like any other medical service.

If a parent is suffering through treatment for cancer, heart failure, COPD, or dementia, ask the doctor one direct question: can we get a palliative care consult? It can transform their quality of life — without giving anything up.

This has been Care Without Crisis Explains, presented by Vanguard Care Solutions.

For more free videos and family resources — or when you’re ready to talk about care at home — visit vanguardcaresolutions.com or call 301-327-1444.