Supportive Care
Supportive care is often offered to patients suffering from life-threatening diseases or disorders. These services are designed to provide relief from
symptoms that cause discomfort to those battling illnesses.
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Supportive care is not intended to prolong life. Instead, its goal is to offer patient comfort and impart support for patients and their families. Supportive care is not a curative care, meaning it does not provide a cure to patients' diseases or disorders.
Also known as palliative care, comfort care or symptom management, supportive care prevents or reduces disease symptoms (i.e., chest pain for lung cancer patients) and the side effects associated with the disease treatment (i.e., chemotherapy). In addition, supportive care includes social, spiritual and psychological support to help patients and their families with emotional troubles that may arise when battling a life-threatening illness.
Implementing a supportive care plan depends on a patient's prognosis regarding his or her particular disease. If the disease is not curable, supportive care is usually offered in addition to normal medical treatments. For instance, someone suffering from a largely incurable disease such as pancreatic cancer, may experience chronic abdominal or back pain. Through a supportive care plan, patients with pancreatic cancer can work with their doctors to eliminate that pain or at least make it more tolerable. Their supportive care will coincide with their other treatments, if necessary, such as chemotherapy or radiation.
Supportive care is not confined to one particular disease or illness. People with a variety of cancers, chronic heart failure, pulmonary disorders and many other conditions experience many similar symptoms. Symptoms commonly managed through supportive care include:
- Shortness of breath
- Fatigue
- Pain
- Loss of appetite
- Gastrointestinal problems
- Depression
Even patients who have sustained life-long injuries resulting from an accident or those who were born with serious neurological defects use supportive therapy to not only help with symptom relief, but to also to restore body functions.
Supportive care should not be confused with hospice care. Hospice care deals directly with dying patients. However, patients and their families dealing with serious illness need to understand that their medical condition can quickly change at any moment, which subsequently changes the goals of treatment plans.