Palliative Care
Extra Support for Serious Illness
Living with a serious illness can affect every part of daily life. Symptoms, treatments and medical decisions can feel overwhelming for both patients and family caregivers.
Palliative care provides an extra layer of support focused on helping you feel more comfortable, better manage symptoms and improve your quality of life. Unlike hospice care, palliative care can be provided alongside treatments that are intended to cure or manage your illness.
Our palliative care team works with you, your loved ones and your doctors to make sure your care aligns with your goals, values and preferences.
What Is Palliative Care?
Palliative care is specialized medical care for people living with serious or long-term illnesses. Care is focused on relieving symptoms, improving comfort and helping patients and families navigate the challenges that often come with complex health conditions.
Palliative care is based on your needs, not your prognosis. It can be provided at any age and at any stage of a serious illness.
You may benefit from palliative care if you:
- Live with one or more serious or long-term illnesses
- Have symptoms that affect your comfort or quality of life
- Experience side effects from treatments that are difficult to manage
- Need help making healthcare decisions or documenting future care preferences
- Feel stress, anxiety or uncertainty related to your condition
- Have a family caregiver who needs additional support
- Have frequent emergency room visits or hospital stays related to your symptoms
If any of these situations sound familiar, palliative care may help.
Meet Your Palliative Care Team
Palliative care brings together a team of professionals who work closely with your doctors and other healthcare providers to support your physical, emotional and spiritual wellbeing.
Your care team may include:
- Physicians and Nurse Practitioners who develop a personalized care plan, manage symptoms and coordinate care with your healthcare providers.
- Social Workers who provide emotional support, counseling and connections to helpful community resources.
- Chaplains who offer spiritual care, guidance and comfort based on your individual beliefs and preferences.
Together, your team helps ensure your care reflects what matters most to you.
Learn more
What Services Can You Expect?
Palliative care is personalized to your needs and goals. Your care team works closely with you and your family to provide support that improves comfort and quality of life.
Services may include:
- Management of symptoms such as pain, shortness of breath, nausea, fatigue and anxiety
- Ongoing review and coordination of medications and treatments
- Support understanding your diagnosis, treatment options and what to expect
- Help making healthcare decisions and documenting future care preferences
- Communication and coordination with your physicians and other healthcare providers
- Emotional support and counseling for patients and family caregivers
- Connections to community resources and support services
- Spiritual care and guidance when desired
Our goal is to help you feel more comfortable, confident and supported throughout your healthcare journey.
How Palliative Care Helps
Serious illnesses often bring physical symptoms, emotional challenges and difficult decisions. Palliative care helps address these concerns while supporting your overall wellbeing.
Palliative care can help you:
- Improve comfort and quality of life
- Better manage symptoms and treatment side effects
- Reduce stress and anxiety related to illness
- Understand your healthcare options
- Make informed decisions about your care
- Improve communication between you, your family and your healthcare providers
- Support family caregivers with education and guidance
- Avoid unnecessary hospital visits when possible
By focusing on the whole person, palliative care helps patients and families feel more supported and in control.
Palliative care services may be covered by Medicare, Medicaid or private insurance depending on your eligibility and coverage.
Our team can help answer questions about insurance and determine what services may be available to you.
If you think palliative care could help, we’re here to guide you through the process. Here’s how it works:
- Talk with your doctor about a referral or contact us to learn more.
- We help determine eligibility and verify insurance coverage.
- Your palliative care team develops a personalized plan and begins providing support where you live.
Why Choose Elara Caring?
- Compassionate support focused on comfort and quality of life
- Care provided wherever you call home
- Personalized plans based on your goals and preferences
- Coordination with your physicians and healthcare providers
- Support for both patients and family caregivers
- Experienced professionals dedicated to whole-person care
- Guidance through complex healthcare decisions and treatment options
The difference between Hospice Care and Palliative Care.
While hospice care and palliative care have some benefits in common, there are significant differences, which the comparison below explains.
Frequently Asked Questions
Palliative care is specialized healthcare for people who are living with serious, long-term illnesses. Palliative care focuses on symptom relief, reducing stress related to the illness and improving quality of life.
This helpful graphic shows what palliative care and hospice care have in common and the differences in care.
The Elara Caring palliative care team includes doctors, nurse practitioners and social workers.
Yes, Palliative care is based on the needs of the patient, not on the patient’s prognosis. It’s appropriate at any age and at any stage in a serious illness.
Elara Caring provides palliative care services wherever you call home—in your home, assisted living facility or nursing home.
Are you a physician or facility?
If you have a patient that could benefit from Elara Caring’s Palliative Care services, we can provide clinical support to improve your patient’s quality of life.
Refer a Patient
