Palliative Care: Focused on Healing

Palliative care is an option to help you and your family focus on healing amid a challenging disease or treatment. If you've heard of palliative care, you may think of it as similar to hospice care, but palliative medicine is separate and distinct from hospice. 

• Palliative care involves a consultation and support through the health system, whereas hospice care focuses on finding peace in the end of life and is intended for those whose life expectancy is predicted to be six months or fewer.
• Palliative care is also introduced much earlier in the course of an illness than hospice care – the goal being to help patients and their families navigate their care plan and ensure they're living as comfortably as possible by managing their pain and other symptoms.

For people living with a major illness or multiple medical conditions, it can feel like they're on a medical train. Hope Wechkin, MD, Medical Director of EvergreenHealth Home Care Services, shares how palliative medicine is your chance to get off with reprieve from a compassionate care team.

"First you get one thing, then you get the next, the next, the next. Next you get lab results and test results and pretty soon, you feel like you're on this medical train that's going fast," she says. "Palliative medicine is kind of like a train station. It's a chance to get off the medical train, get comfortable, and plan the rest of the journey."

Is Palliative Care Right for You or a Loved One?

After a major diagnosis, such as cancer or progressive neurological disease, the palliative care team is available in both the outpatient and hospital settings. Your team could include physicians, nurse practitioners, a nurse, a social worker and hospital chaplains, all working as an added layer of support in addition to your existing care team.

Our team is highly collaborative and partners with you throughout your care, ensuring all of your questions are answered and you're receiving personalized, high-quality care that meets your lifestyle and health goals.

"We walk alongside patients as they are receiving curative treatments. The focus is very much on symptom management as well as on clarifying the goals of care," says Laura Johnson, MD, Medical Director of EvergreenHealth Hospice and Palliative Medicine.

Support for Patients and Families

At EvergreenHealth Palliative Medicine, you and your palliative medicine provider will begin by discussing your symptoms to determine how they can best serve you and what to focus on—whether it's pain, fatigue, shortness of breath or anything else—and then you'll work together to make sure those symptoms are being managed as well as possible.

"We aim to provide relief from the symptoms and stress of the illness and that's for both the patient and the family," says Dr. Johnson.

Your palliative care team is focused on you and your support system, developing a plan and making sure you have a clear understanding of what to expect from your care. How often you see your palliative care provider depends on your personalized plan that you develop together.

Call EvergreenHealth Palliative Medicine at (425) 899-3224 to learn more about how you and your family can benefit.

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