Palliative Care

The Relief You Need When You’re 

Experiencing the Symptoms of Serious Illness
Palliative Care:

Improving quality of life when you’re seriously ill.

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Dealing with the symptoms of any painful or serious illness is 

difficult. However, special care is available to make you more 

comfortable right now. It’s called palliative (pal-lee-uh-tiv) care. 

You receive palliative care at the same time that you’re receiving 

treatments for your illness. Its primary purpose is to relieve the 

pain and other symptoms you are experiencing and improve 

your quality of life.

Palliative care is a central part of treatment for serious or lifethreatening illnesses. The information in this brochure will help 

you understand how you or someone close to you can benefit 

from this type of care.

What is palliative care?

Palliative care is comprehensive treatment of the discomfort, 

symptoms and stress of serious illness. It does not replace 

your primary treatment; palliative care works together with the 

primary treatment you’re receiving. The goal is to prevent and 

ease suffering and improve your quality of life.

If you need palliative care, does that mean you’re dying?

The purpose of palliative care is to address distressing 

symptoms such as pain, breathing difficulties or nausea, 

among others. Receiving palliative care does not necessarily 

mean you’re dying.
Palliative care gives you a chance to live your life 

more comfortably.

Palliative care provides relief from distressing symptoms including pain, shortness 

of breath, fatigue, constipation, nausea, loss of appetite, problems with sleep and 

many other symptoms. It can also help you deal with the side effects of the medical 

treatments you’re receiving. Perhaps, most important, palliative care can help 

improve your quality of life. 

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Palliative care is different from hospice care. 

Palliative care is available to you at any time during your illness. emember that 

you can receive palliative care at the same time you receive treatments that are 

meant to cure your illness. ts availability does not depend upon whether or not 

your condition can be cured. he goal is to make you as comfortable as possible 

and improve your quality of life.

You don’t have to be in hospice or at the end of life to receive palliative care. 

People in hospice always receive palliative care, but hospice focuses on a 

person’s final months of life. o qualify for some hospice programs, patients must 

no longer be receiving treatments to cure their illness.

Palliative care also provides support for you and your family 

and can improve communication between you and your 

health care providers. 

Palliative care strives to provide you with:

• Expert treatment of pain and other symptoms so you can 

get the best relief possible.

• Open discussion about treatment choices, including treatment 

for your disease and management of your symptoms.

• Coordination of your care with all of your health care providers.

• Emotional support for you and your family.

Palliative care can be very effective.

Researchers have studied the positive effects palliative care 

has on patients. Recent studies show that patients who 

receive palliative care report improvement in:

• Pain and other distressing symptoms, such as nausea or 

shortness of breath.

• Communication with their health care providers and 

family members.

• Emotional support.

Other studies also show that palliative care:

• Ensures that care is more in line with patients’ wishes.

• Meets the emotional and spiritual needs of patients. 

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Palliative are

is comprehensive care designed especially 

for your needs.

 team approach to patient-centered care.

Palliative care is provided by a team of specialists that may include: 

• palliative care doctors

• palliative care nurses

• social workers

• chaplains

• pharmacists

• nutritionists

• counselors and others

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S e ial are

that supports you and your wishes.

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Palliative care supports you and those who love you by maximizing 

your comfort. It also helps you set goals for the future that lead to a 

meaningful, enjoyable life while you get treatment for your illness.

How do you know if you need palliative care?

Many adults and children living with illnesses such as cancer, heart 

disease, lung disease, kidney failure, AIDS and cystic fibrosis, 

among others, experience physical symptoms and emotional 

distress related to their diseases. Sometimes these symptoms are 

related to the medical treatments they are receiving. 

You may want to consider palliative care if you or your loved one: 

• Suffers from pain or other symptoms due to ANY serious illness.

• Experiences physical or emotional pain that is NOT under control.

• Needs help understanding your situation and coordinating your care.

Start palliative care as soon as you need it. 

It’s never too early to start palliative care. In fact, palliative care 

occurs at the same time as all other treatments for your illness and 

does not depend upon the course of your disease.

There is no reason to wait. Serious illnesses and their treatments 

can cause exhaustion, anxiety and depression. Palliative care teams 

understand that pain and other symptoms affect your quality of life 

and can leave you lacking the energy or motivation to pursue the 

things you enjoy. They also know that the stress of what you’re going 

through can have a big impact on your family. And they can assist 

you and your loved ones as you cope with the difficult experience.
Working together as a team. 

Patients who are considering palliative care often wonder how 

it will affect their relationships with their current health care 

providers. Some of their questions include:

• Will I have to give up my primary health care provider?

• What do I say if there is resistance to referring me for 

palliative care services? 

• Will I offend my health care provider if I ask questions?

Most important, you do NOT give up your own health care 

provider in order to get palliative care. The palliative care 

team and your health care provider work together.

Most clinicians appreciate the extra time and information the 

palliative care team provides to their patients. Occasionally a 

clinician may not refer a patient for palliative care services. If 

this happens to you, ask for an explanation. Let your health care 

provider know why you think palliative care could help you. 

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Getting palliative care is as easy as 

asking for it.

In most cases, palliative care is provided in the hospital. 

The process begins when either your health care provider 

refers you to the palliative care team or you ask your health 

care provider for a referral. In the hospital, palliative care is 

provided by a team of professionals, including medical and 

nursing specialists, social workers, pharmacists, nutritionists, 

clergy and others.

nsurance pays for palliative care.

Most insurance plans cover all or part of the palliative care 

treatment you receive in the hospital, just as they would other 

services. Medicare and Medicaid also typically cover palliative 

care. If you have concerns about the cost of palliative care 

treatment, a social worker from the palliative care team can 

help you.

What happens when you leave the hospital?

When you leave the hospital, your palliative care team will 

help you make a successful move to your home, hospice or 

other health care setting. 

f morphine is prescribed, will it be dangerous?

If you have an illness causing you pain that is not relieved by drugs such as 

acetaminophen or ibuprofen, the palliative care team may recommend trying 

stronger medicines such as morphine.

Simply stated, morphine is an opiate – a strong medicine for treating pain. Like other 

similar opiate medicines (hydrocodone, oxycodone), it provides safe and effective pain 

treatment. In fact, almost all pain can be relieved with morphine and similar strong 

drugs that are available today. So no one should suffer because they or their health 

care provider have concerns about morphine or other drugs in the opiate family.

f take morphine, will become addicted?

In fact, very few people who use opiates for pain relief ever become addicted or 

dependent on these medicines. However, it is important to be aware that anyone 

taking opiates for more than two weeks should not stop doing so abruptly. You 

should ask your health care provider about gradually reducing your dose so that 

your body is able to adjust. 

There is no reason to wait until your pain is unbearable before you begin taking 

morphine. As your pain increases, your morphine dose can be safely increased to 

provide the relief you need over time.

All opiates can cause nausea, drowsiness and constipation. However, as your body 

adjusts to the medicine, side effects will generally decrease. Also, side effects such 

as constipation can easily be managed.

As always, if you have concerns about taking these or any medications, talk to your 

palliative care team. They can tell you about how various medications work, what 

their side effects are and how to get the most effective pain relief.

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Don’t wait to get the help you deserve. 

sk for palliative care and start feeling 

better now.

If you think you need palliative care, ask for it now. Tell your 

health care provider that you’d like to add palliative care 

specialists to your treatment team and request a consultation.

If you want to find a hospital in your area that offers a palliative 

care program, you can go to the Palliative Care Provider 

Directory of Hospitals at www.getpalliativecare.org to search 

by state and city.

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U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

National Institutes of Health

www.ninr.nih.gov

National Institute of Nursing Research 

National Institutes of Health 

31 Center Drive, Room 5B10 

Bethesda, Maryland 20892-2178

N H publication #11-6415 

Printed May 2011