What is Palliative Care?

What you and your loved one should know about a type of care that alleviates suffering and focuses on your treatment goals.

Palliative care is a very specialized form of medical care for patients living with a serious illness. It’s focused on providing relief from symptoms, pain, and side effects of the illness. It can be helpful at any stage of a chronic disease, or at the end of life. Palliative care also focuses on helping patients define and achieve their goals of care. This, in turn, can improve quality of life for both the patient and their family. 

In this video, Emily Palmer, clinical director for Hebrew SeniorLife’s palliative care, provides a more in-depth overview of palliative care, the benefits, who provides it, and who is eligible for this level of extra support. 

At Hebrew SeniorLife, the palliative care team guides patients and families in having sometimes difficult or challenging conversations about goals of care. We are able to support families as they participate in these transitions and make decisions with their loved ones. We offer palliative care consultations for inpatients at Hebrew Rehabilitation Center, and also through our Home Health services.