Palliative care

Palliative care is a specialized form of medicine that aims to enhance the quality of life of patients and their families who are faced with serious illness. It focuses on increasing comfort through prevention and treatment of distressing symptoms. In addition to expert symptom management, palliative care focuses on clear communication, advance planning, and coordination of care.

Palliative care encompasses the whole self, caring for the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of patients and their families. It provides relief from pain and other symptoms of illness such as fatigue  nausea, shortness of breath, and loss of appetite. The goal is to prevent and relieve these symptoms so you can get on with daily life.

• provides relief from pain, shortness of breath, nausea and other distressing symptoms;
• affirms life and regards dying as a normal process;
• intends neither to hasten nor to postpone death;
• integrates the psychological and spiritual aspects of patient care;
• offers a support system to help patients live as actively as possible;
• offers a support system to help the family cope;
• uses a team approach to address the needs of patients and their families;
• will enhance quality of life;
• is applicable early in the course of illness, in conjunction with other therapies that are intended to prolong life, such as chemotherapy or radiation therapy.

Elite Care believe while palliative care may seem to offer a broad range of services, the goals of palliative treatment are concrete: relief from suffering, treatment of pain and other distressing symptoms, psychological and spiritual care, a support system to help the individual live as actively as possible and a support system to sustain and rehabilitate the individual's family.