Bringing in Additional Support: Palliative Care

The healthcare profession that is really concerned about quality of life and treating suffering, rather than disease, is known as palliative care. This is very much a field of advocacy.

One of the ways to get a lot of help quickly is to get a palliative care team involved. Because palliative care programs are often housed within a hospital system, the first thing to do would be to ask the appropriate primary care physician whether or not you, or your person, requires palliative care services and where you might find palliative care clinicians.

There’s also a great website called GetPalliativeCare.org where you can type in your location to find out what kind of care programs are available, and then call those programs directly. Sometimes those programs require a doctor’s referral, or are only for certain diseases they are willing or able to see. There are program-dependent limitations to this method, which is exactly why I started Mettle Health, so that you have access to this kind of advocacy and support online.

What about Hospice Care?

One of the big questions often comes up around knowing when to involve hospice care. Hospice is a subset of palliative care that deals with end-of-life care. I would encourage you, especially caregivers, to inquire before there’s a need for hospice care so that you know what kind of care options are for you. This way you can be prepared. Most people wait too long.

I would encourage anyone caring in any capacity for someone who is seriously ill or chronically ill: find out about care programs in your area, reach out, and do it sooner rather than later.

I’ve never met anyone who’s regretted involving better care, and have met many people who regret doing so too late.