Palliative Care
Managing pain and stress can be among the most difficult aspects of dealing with any illness or injury. Hancock Health’s palliative care team is dedicated to improving the quality of life for our patients at the hospital or on an outpatient basis.

What is Palliative Care?
Palliative care is specialized medical treatment that focuses on relieving the pain, discomfort, and stress that can accompany serious illness or injury.
Ways we can help include:
- Treating symptoms such as pain, nausea, fatigue, shortness of breath, depression, and anxiety
- Keeping patients comfortable and as active as possible
- Assisting patients and their families in setting goals for care, understanding their options, and making difficult decisions about treatments
- Supporting integrated treatments for patient needs
- Connecting patients to resources for support outside Hancock Health
When Do I Need It?
Palliative care is an option for patients with cancer, heart failure, obstructive lung disease, dementia, or other serious illnesses that lower quality of life through physical or emotional pain. Anyone struggling to cope with that pain may be a candidate for palliative care—which can be used at any time following the patient’s diagnosis.
Besides benefiting people who are living with chronic illnesses, palliative care can be useful to patients with curable medical conditions. In this case, palliative care can be provided alongside curative treatment.
If curative treatment does not help the patient’s condition, palliative care can be continued, with greater emphasis placed on comfort. If patients are nearing the end of their lives, palliative care may transition to hospice care.
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