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How likely are you to consider palliative care for yourself or a loved one if they had a serious illness? That’s what a 2019 study by The Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC) asked over one thousand randomly selected adults, including family caregivers and patients with serious illnesses. Overall, initial responses were fairly neutral; 40% of adults (excluding family caregivers and patients with serious illnesses) reported that they were unable to respond: they didn’t know enough about palliative care to answer. However, after hearing the CAPC’s definition of palliative care, over 80% of respondents (including family caregivers and patients with serious illnesses) were very likely to consider it for themselves and loved ones–a net increase of approximately +14 percentage points across all groups of those surveyed.
More than anything, the CAPC’s study showed, plainly, that palliative care is a branch of healthcare with which most people are still completely unfamiliar.
People battling chronic, serious illnesses often require a plethora of services to both alleviate their symptoms, and relieve the stress that comes with the management of their conditions. Additionally, families supporting and caregiving for people battling serious illnesses are often charged with playing the roles of healthcare providers while balancing the needs of their own lives. According to CAPC, the utilization of palliative care programs can “improve quality of life for both the patient and the family“, by providing counseling to everyone involved; managing emotional symptoms of the patient’s diagnosis; improving coordination of care plans between all healthcare providers involved; and much more.
On this HealthCetera podcast, Dr. Diana Mason, PhD, RN, host of this program, discusses palliative care and its benefits with Dr. William Rosa, a palliative care nurse practitioner and a postdoctoral research fellow at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.
This interview was recorded on March 24th, 2021, as a part of HealthCetera in the Catskills on WIOX radio.
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