Palliative Care
Palliative medicine is specialized medical care for people living with a serious illness which is focused on providing relief from the symptoms and stress of the illness.
What is Palliative Care?
Palliative care is specialized care for people facing serious illness, focusing on providing relief of suffering (physical, psychosocial, and spiritual), to maximize quality of life for both the patient and family. Within palliative care, serious illness is defined as a health condition that carries a high risk of mortality and a) negatively impacts a person's daily function, b) negatively impacts a person's quality of life, and/or c) excessively strains the person's caregiver.
Resources
The below resources will walk you through the steps in determining if palliative care is right for you and access further information about the differences in palliative and hospice care. Learn more about palliative care options and talk to your healthcare proivder about palliative care options.
- Is Palliative Care Right for You?
- Differences between hospice and palliative care
- Center to Advance Palliative Care
- Center to Advance Palliative Care: Pediatric Palliative Care Delivery
- National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization
- State Palliative Care and Quality of Life Advisory Council
- State of Tennessee Cancer Plan