Palliative Care is an interdisciplinary team approach that aims to relieve suffering and improve quality of life for patients with advanced illness and their families. It is offered simultaneously with all other medical treatment. The goal of palliative care is to offer hope to patients who suffer emotionally, physically and spiritually due to chronic, catastrophic or terminal illness.

Often Palliative Care is confused with Hospice. The key difference between hospice and palliative care is that with palliative care, an individual may be receiving curative therapy. Anyone with a serious, life-limiting or chronic disease can benefit from palliative care. Palliative care can extend from a few hours to several years. Palliative care is not limited to the terminally ill or dying.

Palliative care focuses on treating pain, symptoms and stress, providing support for daily living, helping patients and families make difficult medical decisions and ensuring that patient and family wishes for care are established and respected. Palliative care affirms life by supporting the patient and family's goals for the future, including their hopes for cure, as well as their hopes for peace and dignity throughout the course of illness, the dying process and possible death. Palliative care aims to guide and assist the patient and family in making decisions that enable them to optimize their quality of life.

For information about Palliative Care or services, call (631)-376-4444.

Shown are Dr. Pedro Calves, medical director of Palliative Care at GSHMC and Eileen Roberto, RN BS CHPN, Palliative Care coordinator