Palliative Resources for Your Patients & Their Families

For patients living with advanced chronic conditions, palliative care can be an invaluable resource. From care coordination and symptom management to mental health services, palliative care works in tandem with conventional medical care to help patients and families feel more fully supported.

Unfortunately, palliative care is often underutilized, because many people are unaware it’s an option or misunderstand its role. Patients who would benefit from palliative care rely on providers, such as physicians, discharge planners, and social workers, to connect them to this valuable support option. With the right conversational approach and resources to guide families, providers can address misconceptions, explain benefits, and — when appropriate — refer patients to palliative care.

The Pressing Need for Palliative Care Education

Each year, 56.8 million people need palliative care, but only about 14% receive it. This is likely due in part to the fact that a strikingly low 12.6% of U.S. adults actually understand what it is. Among those who are familiar with palliative care, almost half associate it with end-of-life care.

This confusion has real consequences. Without a clear understanding of what palliative care offers, patients and their families can miss out on services that could ease symptoms and improve daily life.

Patients and their families often confuse palliative care with hospice.

Palliative care can have a negative connotation when people don’t have direct experience with it or only hear sound bites from unreliable sources. Providers should be prepared to address misconceptions about palliative care, such as the belief that it’s reserved for terminal hospice patients, focused only on pain management, incompatible with conventional medical care, or cost-prohibitive.

Lay it out in simple terms by explaining palliative care as an extra layer of support that, unlike hospice care, doesn’t require patients to stop curative treatments. Help your patients take full advantage of palliative care by setting the record straight with your expertise.

Initiating the Palliative Care Conversation

Break the ice with an open, honest conversation to find out what a patient and their family already know about palliative care. Fielding a few questions and even listening to personal stories can be very telling to personalize the experience, not only to find the right starting point for your guidance but also to reveal any existing misconceptions.

Highlight the benefits of palliative care.

One of the biggest challenges in recommending palliative care is the difficulty of conveying its benefits, because families often view it as giving up on treatment. Reframe palliative care positively as a means to enhance the patient’s quality of life and comfort instead.

Checklist: When to Refer a Patient to Palliative Care

Not every patient with a serious illness needs palliative care right away, but a few clear signals increase the likelihood that they do. Consider referring a patient to palliative care or home care services when they check these boxes:

☐ Frequent visits

The patient has been hospitalized repeatedly or frequently visits the clinic for the same chronic condition due to poor symptom management.

☐ Home management difficulty

Family caregivers are burned out from managing the demands of complex symptoms or medication regimens alone.

☐ Medicare eligibility

The patient already qualifies for Medicare-reimbursed health care services because they rarely leave home and have an existing order from a physician.

☐ Functional decline

The patient shows signs of progressive frailty but doesn’t yet qualify for, or want, hospice care.

Informative Palliative Care Resources

Palliative care is designed to help families, not just patients. Make it easy for them to access reliable guidance and care coordination support by sharing a few palliative care resources from WesleyLife.

Share our comprehensive palliative care guides.

The right guide can answer questions families haven't thought to ask yet but may need detailed information about later. Address the unique needs of patients and caregivers with a few all-in-one resources.

• Families are focused on navigating care needs, not searching for answers. The Complete Guide to Palliative Care distills what’s most important, detailing holistic care team support and how medical advocates manage well-being and care coordination to relieve caregiver burdens.
• Caregiver burnout can hinder patient outcomes. The Complete Guide for Caregivers outlines how palliative care assistance manages the load, highlighting care coordination benefits, how to administer medications at home, and ways to obtain additional support.

Many family caregivers are supporting palliative care needs for the first time and don't know what to expect. Empower them to take care of loved ones and themselves with dedicated caregiver articles.

Point them to these WesleyLife blog articles.

Think about all the questions families ask, and curate a selection of palliative care resources to answer them. The WesleyLife blog offers insights for any level of knowledge.

• Start with the basics. “What Is Palliative Care?” explains palliative care as a service to help individuals with chronic medical conditions manage complex physical, emotional, and spiritual needs, outlining what it includes and how to qualify.
• Clear up the biggest point of confusion. “What Is Palliative Care vs. Hospice?” clarifies that, while palliative care and hospice both emphasize symptom management and quality of life, palliative care is for anyone with serious or chronic illness and hospice is for individuals with a life expectancy of less than six months.
• Show them what care looks like day to day. “Palliative Care at Home: What to Expect” walks families through the personalized medical and emotional support of home-based palliative care, highlighting care coordinators as partners who assist families with daily activities and symptom management.
• Remind caregivers that they matter, too. “How Palliative Care Supports Caregivers” illustrates how care teams provide caregiver assistance ranging from respite care to symptom management training to relief from care coordination demands.

As families discuss palliative care together, they'll likely have more questions. Point them to the WesleyLife blog for additional articles.

Palliative Care from WesleyLife

WesleyLife acts as an extension of your clinical team, assigning a consistent team to aid each patient at home throughout their care plan. Our personalized approach centers on collaboration between several specialized medical roles to carry out individualized care plans that enhance quality of life and decrease readmissions.

• Nurse practitioner care coordinators serve as the central medical advocate and team lead. They conduct the initial home assessment, help clients define personal care goals, and align treatment plans with the primary physician.
• Pain and symptom management experts provide targeted relief for pain, fatigue, nausea, and anxiety right at home, which decreases unnecessary hospital readmissions.
• The interdisciplinary team rounds out that support. Social workers and chaplains offer emotional, psychological, and spiritual guidance to ease anxiety for the older adult and their loved ones, while therapists, pharmacists, and dietitians optimize daily functioning at home.

Full-team support gives patients and caregivers what they need to face the challenges ahead. Are you working with patients who are navigating the palliative care process? Consult with their clinical teams or refer them to WesleyLife directly.