Palliative care is specialised care and support provided for someone living with a terminal condition. Palliative care also involves care and support for family members and carers.

 

Palliative care is provided in a sensitive way, taking into account individual and family uniqueness, cultural and spiritual beliefs and lifestyle patterns.

 

Palliative care:

• affirms life and regards dying as a normal process

• neither hastens nor postpones death

• provides relief from pain and other distressing symptoms

• integrates the psychological, emotional and spiritual aspects of patient care

• offers a support system to help patients live as actively as possible until death

• offers a support system to help family and friends cope during the patient’s illness and their bereavement.

 

Palliative care can be provided by a number of different health professionals, depending on the illness and the needs and resources of the patient, their family and caregivers.

 

Together, professionals involved in delivering palliative care generally work in a multidisciplinary team and may include:

• specialist palliative care doctors and nurses

• general practitioners

• specialist doctors – oncologists, cardiologists, neurologists, respiratory physicians

• nurses

• allied health professionals – pharmacists, occupational therapists, physiotherapists

• social workers

• grief and bereavement counsellors

• pastoral care workers

 

Patients and their families and caregivers should have access to the level of care and support they need provided by health professionals, trained volunteers and their own communities. Palliative care can be provided in:

• the home

• a hospital

• an aged care home

• a hospice.