Most people would have heard of the terms end of life care and palliative care, but it’s easy to confuse the two.
For a start, palliative care is often misunderstood to be end of life, when for many people it involves living well with a life-limiting illness. It could be that, with the right support, a person lives well with a palliative condition for many years.
End of life care, on the other hand, involves treatment, care and support for people nearing the end of their life. It is an important part of palliative care but involves different care needs.
Where palliative care focuses on living well every day, end of life care helps a person live as comfortably and well as possible in the time that they have left. As with palliative care, end of life care at home often involves close communication with family and friends.