During a serious illness, palliative care can help you feel better in mind and body.

Trust the caring palliative medicine staff at Ballad Health to help you reduce symptoms – including pain, anxiety and depression – so you can live as well as possible.

What Is Palliative Care?

Palliative medicine helps take care of your physical, emotional, spiritual and social concerns.

Depending on your needs, you may get help from several types of professionals, such as:

• Doctors – Diagnose and treat your condition
• Nurses – Provide essential, everyday medical care
• Chaplain – Offers spiritual and emotional support
• Home health aides – Tend to your basic health needs at your home
• Social worker – Connects you and your family with community resources that make life easier
• Pain management specialist – Reduces discomfort
• Psychologist – Helps you develop positive ways of thinking, feeling, acting and managing relationships
• Rehabilitation specialists – Help you more easily move, speak, swallow or complete daily tasks

You may benefit from palliative care if you have any serious medical condition, including:

• Cancer
• COPD or pulmonary fibrosis
• Heart failure
• Kidney disease
• Neurological disorders, such as Parkinson’s disease or ALS

Palliative Care Differs from Hospice Care

Ask for palliative care during any advanced illness, even as you receive medical treatment.

Seek hospice care only when you’re nearing the end of life and no longer receiving medical treatment to make the disease stop or slow down.

Insurance Covers Palliative Care

Most insurance plans cover palliative care. Call your insurance provider to make sure.