What is palliative or end-of-life care?

Palliative care is the care and support given to people with life-limiting conditions like cancer, heart failure and lung disease. It aims to give people the best quality of life possible. It focuses on managing pain and other symptoms over the weeks, months or years someone is living with a life-limiting condition.

Palliative care includes the practical and emotional support people and those close to them need in order to spend the time they have left in the way they choose.

End-of-life care is the care and support given to people in their last few weeks or final days.

People can receive end-of-life care at home, in a hospice or in hospital, depending on their needs and preferences. Whatever has brought a person to the end of their life, be it a life-limiting condition or old age, end-of-life care aims to manage pain and other symptoms so they are as comfortable as possible.

By helping people and their families to make the choices that are right for them, end-of-life care offers practical and emotional support at what can be a very difficult time.

Hospice care is the care given to people with a life-limiting condition. It combines specialist medical care to manage pain and other symptoms, along with the emotional and practical support.

Hospice care describes a type of care, rather than a place of care. It can be given in a hospice building at day clinics or for short, overnight stays (usually two weeks), in people’s homes and out in the community.

It includes palliative care, which focuses on managing symptoms to give someone the best quality of life for the weeks, months and years they are living with a life-limiting condition. And it includes end-of-life care, which is given in someone’s final weeks and days.

People can choose to have hospice care until their symptoms are under control, then take a break if their condition becomes stable and they feel better. Some people choose to spend their last few weeks and days at a hospice and die there.