At least 13 million Americans are living with a serious illness and could benefit from palliative care, according to the Center to Advance Palliative Care. Palliative care is specialized medical care for people living with serious illnesses. This type of care is focused on providing relief from the symptoms and stress of the illness. The goal is to improve the quality of life for both the patient and the family. Further, palliative care teams help patients and their loved ones with understanding the effects disease will have on their lives, guiding them through questions about prognosis or what they can expect from medical treatments.
Johns Hopkins Medicine experts say palliative medicine is often mistaken for end-of-life care, but it has evolved since its inception. A palliative care team is interdisciplinary, including a physician or health care provider, nurse, social worker, pharmacist and spiritual counselor, and can be consulted during complex treatments like chemotherapy. Importantly, palliative care teams want to know and respect culture, context, rituals, language and varied perspectives on serious illness.
Experts say there is a growing intersection of patients with serious, life-limiting illnesses and addiction medicine, and in response, Johns Hopkins Medicine is now teaching generalist addiction medicine skills to palliative medicine fellows.
Many patients lack adequate access to palliative care in their community. There is pending bipartisan legislation in Congress focused on expanding access to care, including the expansion of community-based palliative care programs and home-based models. Johns Hopkins Medicine experts are available to discuss what that could mean for the public.
