Palliative care means different things to different people.
Traditionally, palliative care has referred to giving pain medication so the patient is as comfortable as possible throughout the dying process. Most lay people view palliative care as something to turn to only after all efforts to cure or control a disease have been exhausted. The goal of palliative care is that you have the best quality of life you can have during this time. This is done, the organization says, by lessening emotional and spiritual pain as well as physical pain. When to move from therapeutic treatment to treatment that is solely to relieve pain and other symptoms is a highly personal decision based on a variety of factors, including the patient's prognosis and his or her willingness to undergo experimental treatment if that is the only remaining therapeutic option.