Palliative and end of life care

What is palliative care?

Palliative care helps people with a serious illness feel as well and as comfortable as possible.

It helps to manage pain and other symptoms. It also gives emotional, practical and spiritual support if it is needed.

Palliative care is not just for the end of life. It can begin at any stage of a serious illness and continue for as long as it is needed.

Palliative care also helps families and carers. It supports them during the illness and after someone has died.

Palliative care aims to:

• help people live as well as they can
• ease pain and other symptoms
• support emotional, practical and spiritual needs
• help people make choices about their care
• support families and carers.

Who provides palliative care?

Many health and care professionals provide palliative care.

This may include:

• GPs
• nurses
• hospital staff
• care home staff
• community health teams.

These professionals provide most palliative care as part of their everyday work.

Some people need extra help from a specialist palliative care team. These teams have extra training and experience in caring for people with more complex needs.

What does a specialist palliative care team do?

A specialist team can:

• assess a person's needs
• help manage pain and other symptoms
• give advice to patients, families and other healthcare staff
• provide care at home, in hospital, in a hospice or in a care home
• help people stay at home if that is their choice
• offer emotional and practical support
• support families before and after a loved one dies.

The team may include doctors, specialist nurses and other health professionals, such as physiotherapists, pharmacists, social workers and counsellors.

What is end of life care?

End of life care is part of palliative care. It is for people who may be in the last 6 to 12 months of their life.

Its aim is to help people live as well and as comfortably as possible until they die.

End of life care may include:

• managing pain and other symptoms
• emotional and practical support
• support with spiritual needs if this is important to the person
• help for families and carers
• bereavement support after someone has died.

Everyone should receive good end of life care, whatever their illness or wherever they are being cared for.