Patients and their families who are close to the end of life will benefit from supportive and palliative care services. Supportive care is provided by medical personnel, psychologists, social workers and members of the clergy to the patient and his or her family. Palliative care focuses on the medical needs of a patient who is terminally ill, with the underlying concept that death is a natural process. These types of care may be provided in a hospital, medical center or at the patient’s home, depending on the patient’s needs and preferences.
Supportive care is focused on helping the patient and his or her loved ones understand and come to terms with the illness. Anyone who has been diagnosed with such a serious medical condition can benefit from the help provided from professionals to understand and eventually come to terms with his or her health situation. Supportive and palliative care may be provided by a team of providers who will evaluate the patient’s needs to determine the best way to provide assistance.
The first step in providing supportive and palliative care is to conduct an assessment of the patient’s condition. The patient and his or her family may have questions about how the medical condition will progress and what to expect as the patient gets closer to death. The goal of this type of care is to provide assistance, emotional and spiritual support so that the patient can live as well as possible for as long as possible.
Supportive and palliative care also deals with issues around pain management for terminally ill patients. Medication and other comfort measures can be put in place to keep the patient as comfortable as possible. This type of care also has an emotional and spiritual component, since patients may look to their religious faith for comfort during this difficult time. Spiritual advisers can form part of the treatment team to offer assistance.
Since family members start grieving for their loved one even before the death occurs, supportive and palliative care includes helping these people to understand anticipatory grief and their own reactions to the news of the terminal illness. The feelings associated with losing a loved one don’t start when the individual dies. The terminally ill patient's friends and family members will start to react to the imminent death of the patient when they hear the news and the treatment team members can help them understand and cope with these feelings.