What Is Palliative Care

Palliative care provides a focused approach to relieve symptoms and improve quality of life, working alongside curative treatment where possible. This type of care is central to many UK health settings such as hospitals, hospices and home care.

At Mariposa Care, we provide a range of care options across our homes and understand the expectations surrounding different levels of care, including palliative. Let’s look at what palliative care involves, when it is needed and some of the expectations around it.

What is palliative care?

Palliative care is used for those who have advanced progressive illnesses. Alongside medical treatment, it provides residents with a form of active and holistic care that focuses on pain relief as well as psychological, social, and spiritual support.

It can help to provide relief from symptoms and the stress that they create at any stage of an illness to help improve the quality of life for both the service-user and their family.

This is not just delivered by one person and is often the result of multidisciplinary teams like doctors, nurses, social workers and spiritual care workers, coming together to provide compassionate person-centred support alongside medical care.

When is palliative care offered?

Palliative care is not just for the final stages of illness; it can be helpful at any point where extra care and support is required with the aim of supporting comfort, dignity, and wellbeing. It is ideal when symptoms become difficult to manage, or the quality of life of the resident or their family is being significantly impacted.

Palliative care is recommended by NICE and is integrated early alongside other treatments. It is important to remember that palliative care is not dependent on the prognosis of a resident and can be provided alongside curative measures.

Misconceptions around palliative care

In many cases, palliative care can actually extend life and improve wellbeing when it is integrated at an early stage. It can sometimes be associated as end-of-life treatment, but this is not the case. The purpose of palliative care is to enhance the resident’s quality of life and comfort, not to hasten the end.

When residents hear the phrase ‘palliative care’, they may worry that they don’t have a say in their care, in fact, palliative care is built on shared decision-making ensuring service-users remain in control and their voices are heard loud and clear during conversations about their treatment goals and choices.

Palliative care at home

Palliative care can be offered at home as well as in a medical setting, and there are specialist teams designed to provide this domestic support for people with a wide range of needs.

This will work around a basis of coordinated care with symptom management, emotional and spiritual support all brought together with the help of GPs and district nurses.

It can include day services, equipment, therapy, and family support to help maintain comfort, dignity, and family involvement whilst keeping the resident in their own familiar surroundings.

The duration of palliative care

There is no set time frame for palliative care as it will depend on the individual circumstances of the resident and the progression of their illness.

It can begin in the early stages of the illness and continue throughout the course of illness, including end-of-life care where required, and extend to support families afterwards. Palliative care is something that is both flexible and adaptable and will adapt to symptom needs and support changes over time.

Palliative care is about enabling people to live well with a serious illness, using holistic and flexible support that can help residents and their families through the physical, emotional, and practical challenges of illness.

Let Mariposa Care support you

Our qualified nurses focus on helping people live well, with dignity, comfort, and choice. We provide the right support at the right time and guide you and your family every step of the way. Explore our care homes or reach out to our team for a compassionate and caring conversation about your next steps in care.

We also offer free brochure downloads for all our care homes if you’d like to learn more.