Often patients or their loved ones experience anxiety when attempting to cope with the medical treatments of a serious illness.  Serious illness can also often affect our ability to plan for the future, make important decisions about the treatments available or deal with difficult emotional issues which often arise.

Palliative care specialists from NEVPC listen and learn from those individuals who ask for their help. Common questions you might hear from our palliative care specialists are:

• “Tell me what is important to you before I make a recommendation?”
• “How much information do you wish for me to share with you about the disease process?”
• “What is troubling you the most?”
• “What are you hoping will happen?”

By understanding a person’s goals and beliefs, a palliative care specialist can make recommendations that are unique to that individual.

Palliative care makes patients feel better throughout illness by:

• Vigorously treating pain and symptoms such as nausea, fatigue, depression, and anxiety.
• Keeping patients as comfortable and active as possible while fighting an illness so they can enjoy their daily activities and live life to the fullest.
• Helping individuals at any stage of serious illness while they are receiving curative and traditional medical treatments.

NEVPC helps patients and families to navigate the medical system by:

• Answering complex medical questions in a comfortable environment.
• Helping patients and families make the decisions about their medical care which is right for them. Then providing follow-up to ensure those decisions are delivered by the healthcare team.
• Providing answers, assistance, and emotional support to patients and families.
• Identify supportive services for patients after leaving the hospital.