How to Choose the Best Palliative Care Team
What do cancer, Alzheimer’s, COPD and congestive heart failure have in common? They’re serious diseases that require serious medical care. Palliative care provides pain relief, support and comfort while you undergo medical treatment for conditions such as heart failure, cancer, dementia, Parkinson’s disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, kidney disease, ALS and many others. It can occur in the hospital, an outpatient setting, nursing home or your home.
Palliative Care Takes a Team
A single medical provider is all you need when treating a minor illness. With major diseases, such as cancer, COPD or heart failure, a different approach is necessary. That’s why the best palliative care is provided by a multidisciplinary team.
Done in partnership with your regular physicians, palliative care teams work together to provide the best treatment possible. These teams generally include:
- Primary physician
- Nurse practitioner
- Nurses
- Social workers
- Pharmacists
- Chaplains
- Other physicians (oncologists, neurologists, cardiologists, pulmonologists, etc.)
- Therapists (speech, occupational and physical)
- Your family and friends
Palliative Care Is Comprehensive
Administering treatment isn’t the only priority of palliative care. The best palliative care has your whole health and well-being in mind. Here are some of the services provided by palliative care:
- Providing improved quality of life. Chronic, life-threatening and serious illnesses can cause uncomfortable and debilitating symptoms. Palliative care works to relieve this discomfort and improve your quality of life through management of symptoms and treatment side effects. When quality of life is maximized, you are more likely to tolerate and comply with your prescribed treatment. Palliative care providers and pharmacists can help with pain, difficulty breathing, nausea and many other debilitating symptoms.
- Educating you on treatment options. A palliative care team aims to give you more control over your treatment. They do this by explaining the pros and cons of various health care options and how they align with your personal goals. They then assist you in making difficult treatment decisions and guide you through your palliative care journey. For those patients who are considering stopping treatment, the palliative care team is there to answer questions about hospice and when it might be appropriate. In partnership with your primary care and specialty physicians, the palliative care team aims to give you more control over your treatments.
- Helping you develop advanced directives. Palliative care professionals help you consider health care decisions that might need to be made in the future and create a will that aligns with your personal desires and goals for treatment and establish a health care proxy.
- Offering mental and spiritual health support. Dealing with serious illness doesn’t just affect your body, but also your mind and soul. Palliative care takes this into account and offers counsel to you and your loved ones.
Palliative Care Is Compassionate
When choosing a palliative care provider, compassion matters. You need a team that is genuinely concerned about your well-being.
Before signing up for palliative care, interview the potential provider. Ask about the team’s credentials, but don’t stop there. Get to know the palliative care team members. Feeling comfortable with the team will make your experience more pleasant and beneficial.
