Palliative care is medical care provided to people dying of an incurable illness. Such care differs from curative medicine, which focuses on restoring health, and supportive medicine, which involves treatment for chronic illness. The goal of palliative care is to provide comfort for the rest of the patient’s life, and a peaceful death. Palliative care focuses on relieving the symptoms, particularly the pain, of incurable illness. It also addresses the psychological, social, and spiritual needs of the patient and provides support for the patient’s family and caregivers.
Palliative care differs from physician-assisted suicide or euthanasia (helping or allowing people to die). It is not intended to be the direct cause of death. Supporters of palliative care believe that many terminally ill patients ask to die because they suffer from untreated pain, undiagnosed depression, despair, or social isolation. Medical studies have shown that dying patients often do not receive adequate treatment for pain and depression.
In palliative care, the caregivers acknowledge dying as a normal process and death as a part of life. Once the medical team determines that a patient’s condition is terminal, they turn away from attempts to cure the patient and toward making the patient feel comfortable and ready to die peacefully. One form of palliative care, called hospice care, emphasizes treatment at home and encourages family members to participate in caring for the patient.
The term palliative comes from a Latin word meaning cloak. In the past, the term had an unfavorable meaning, suggesting a cover-up of inadequate treatment. Today, the term describes measures to shield a patient from the symptoms of incurable illness.
