Palliative care, what’s it?
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Palliative care is care that is designed to provide comfort and relief for patients, rather than trying to cure or treat the underlying disease. Unlike what a lot of people here are saying, it doesn’t *always* mean somebody is dying. You can give palliative care for patients who are being treated for cancer to help with pain, nausea, etc, and it doesn’t mean that they’re dying or that other treatment has to stop.
Palliative care in the setting of terminal illness also doesn’t mean discontinuing all medications or other potentially lifesaving treatments, and it doesn’t mean “hastening death”; it’s a decision to be made by the patient/family/doctor. For example, a patient with terminal cancer might want to stop a chemotherapy regimen with nasty side effects, but might still be taking their medications to make sure they don’t have a heart attack. It really depends on the individual case!
These might seem nitpicky, but this is really important–a lot of people think that providing palliative care means you’re “giving up” on the patient or that there’s no hope, which can discourage people from seeking it.
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