SUPPORTIVE CARE
Needs-Based Care at Every Stage of Illness
At Highlands, we use the term “Supportive Care” instead of Palliative Care, as it best describes this branch of our medical team. Highlands has a team of two Supportive Care physicians, and two advanced practice providers that are part of our multidisciplinary clinic.
Supportive Care while similar to palliative care, is based on the needs of the patient, not on the patient’s prognosis.
Supportive Care is appropriate at any age and at any stage in a serious illness, and it can be provided along with curative treatment. Palliative Care is typically known as end-of-life care.
What is Supportive Care?
Supportive care experts are uniquely trained to work with patients who have life-threatening illnesses to help manage symptoms, relieve pain, and improve quality of life throughout treatment.
Supportive care provides specialized care to people living with serious illnesses, such as end-stage organ failure and all types of cancer. Supportive care focuses on relieving symptoms and stress while improving the quality of life for patients and their families.
Supportive care can help manage symptoms such as pain, shortness of breath, fatigue, nausea, depression, and anxiety.
Many cancer treatments – such as chemotherapy and radiation – can cause side effects, and supportive care helps address those, too.
Supportive care patients also receive advice about making difficult medical decisions as well as assistance with coordination of care across health care settings. We work with specialists to develop a long-term symptom management plan
When to Start Supportive Care?
Supportive care can start the moment a patient is diagnosed with a serious or life-threatening illness. We work continuously alongside the patient, family, and medical team.
As patients pursue therapies and interventions, we’re there to provide support. Once a patient begins working with our supportive care team, he or she has access to our on-call services 24 hours a day, seven days a week.