Overview of palliative care
Tirohanga whānui ki te manaakitanga whakamaene
When someone has an advanced disease that limits how much longer they will live, a lot can still be done to prevent suffering, relieve their symptoms and improve the quality of their life. This is called palliative care.
Palliative care involves caring for the whole person. It includes looking after their physical, emotional, psychological, social, cultural, and spiritual needs. It also involves caring for and helping their loved ones and carers. This means it considers all the issues that affect someone, rather than just focusing on a single part of their treatment or life.
Sometimes palliative care is described as holistic care. It involves:
- explaining their illness, treatment and medication to them and their caregivers
- treating any pain to help improve their quality of life and relieve any suffering
- helping with their personal care, such as showering and eating
- advising them on self-care, such as healthy eating, exercise and relaxation
- helping them to get support and to network with others
- helping with decision making
- helping with advance care planning so they can make informed and active decisions about how they want to live and die.
Palliative care is provided wherever the person is. This could be in their home, in hospital or at a community clinic or hospice.
People may receive palliative care for years, months, weeks or days. Whatever the timeframe, palliative care aims to help the person and those caring for them have the best quality of life possible.
HealthInfo recommends the following pages
On the next page: Getting help with palliative care
Written by HealthInfo clinical advisers. Contains information adapted from Healthify He Puna Wairoa. Last reviewed October 2024.
Sources
The information in this section comes from the following sources, some of which may be clinically complex or not available to the general public
Canterbury Community HealthPathways – Cough in palliative care, retrieved December 2016.
Canterbury Community HealthPathways – Dyspnoea in palliative care, retrieved December 2016.
Canterbury Community HealthPathways – Pruritus (itch) in palliative care, retrieved December 2016.
Canterbury Community HealthPathways – Weakness and fatigue in palliative care, retrieved December 2016.
Canterbury DHB – Palliative care guidelines (http://cdhb.palliativecare.org.nz/4207.htm), retrieved August 2016.
Nurse Maude – Symptom management, retrieved December 2016.
Palliative Care Australia – Facts about morphine and other opioid medicines in palliative care, retrieved February 2017.
Palliative Care Australia – Learn more about pain and pain management, retrieved February 2017.
South Island Alliance – Health of older people useful resources (https://www.sialliance.health.nz/programmes/health-of-older-people/useful-resources/), retrieved September 2022.
UpToDate – Managing pain when you have cancer, retrieved February 2017.
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Page reference: 35395
Review key: HIPAL-17434
