Palliative Care

Palliative care takes a holistic approach to each individual with the aim of relieving the symptoms of disease. Patients can avail of palliative care at any age, and at any stage in a serious illness. The disease may be curable or life-threatening.

What is Palliative Care?

The World Health Organisation defines Palliative care as:

“…an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing problems associated with life-threatening illnesses, through the prevention and relief of suffering. Palliative care focuses on the treatment of pain and other problems, integrating the physical, psychosocial and spiritual needs of care. Palliative care offers a support system to help patients live as actively as possible and also offers a support system to help the family cope during the patient’s illness”

The Palliative Care Philosophy at Comfort Keepers

Supporting the patient

Through relieving the symptoms for the individual, the overarching aim of our palliative home care team is to provide a personal, tailor-made, care approach so that each patient can have the best quality of life while they are dealing with their illness.

Supporting the family

Our palliative care team at Comfort Keepers makes support of the family as well as the patient a priority.

As well as the patient’s own battle with illness, the burden on their families is also a key concern for the team. The needs and concerns of the family change as the illness of a loved one improves or progresses. Guidance of caregiving may also be required.

Palliative care and hospice care: What’s the difference?

While all hospice care is palliative care, not all palliative care is hospice care.

The goal of palliative care is to give a patient with an illness the best quality of life and to support their family. The patient in this case may not necessarily incurable and has every chance of recovery.

Hospice care on the other hand provides is a type of palliative care (i.e. providing the best quality of life) for a patient who is terminally ill and likely has less than six months to live.

Contact Comfort Keepers

To learn more about our palliative care services, please call us on 1850 818 100 or email us using the form to the right of the page.

If you are interested in joining our care team, please contact us as above or visit our careers page to learn more.