Palliative care is care meant to improve the quality of life of patients who have a serious or life-threatening disease, such as cancer. Palliative care is not end of life care, put simply, the aim of palliative care is to relieve a person’s pain and symptoms, while end-of-life care has the same objective, but is designed for those in the final months or weeks of their life.
Palliative care is an approach to care that addresses the person as a whole, not just their disease. The goal is to prevent or treat, as early as possible, the symptoms and side effects of the disease and its treatment, in addition to any related psychological, social, and spiritual problems.
Palliative care is offered by St Clare and Isabel Hospices. They provide specialist palliative and end of life care to any patient who has a life-limiting illness (this includes patients with both cancer and non-cancer diagnoses) and offer support to families and carers. Referrals can be made by your cancer clinical nurse specialist/cancer support worker or GP.
Information resources
Patient information videos
- One step at a time – a patient perspective on cancer
- One step at a time, a cancer diagnosis through the eyes of a family member
- One step at a time, don’t let cancer become the small ‘c’
Below are four pre-assessment videos for chemotherapy and immunotherapy at the Williams Day Unit, produced by North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust:
- Overview of your immunotherapy treatment and potential side effects
- Understanding your potential chemotherapy side effects
- Overview of your chemotherapy treatment
- Oral chemotherapy: Handling safely at home
The videos are also available to download and watch in the following languages: