MAK-AIRS

The Definition Of Palliative Care Vs. Hospice Care.

People often confuse hospice vs. palliative care. In fact, hospice care includes palliative care within it. However, the two can be separated as different services.  An agency in the Kansas City area provided this definition.

Hospice care focuses on a person’s last six months of life of less. When curative treatment is no longer an option, hospice professionals work to make the patient’s life as comfortable as possible. This means that hospice care includes palliative care, because the goal is to make the patient as comfortable as possible for the time that’s left.

Unlike hospice, palliative care can be performed for non-terminal patients. It is in fact to help people live longer, happier lives.  Palliative care is included within hospice care to keep hospice patients comfortable. However, for non-terminal patients, palliative care is about managing the symptoms and side-effects of life-limiting and chronic illness. Therefore, you can receive palliative care at the same time you receive treatment meant to cure your illness.

Consider illnesses like heart disease, HIV/AIDS, Multiple Sclerosis, the side-effects of chemotherapy. Palliative care, also performed in a patient’s preferred location, looks to make these conditions as manageable as possible so they don’t interfere with the patients’ lives.  Someone can receive palliative care at any stage of an illness, whereas hospice care is only appropriate at an end-of-life stage.