June 2, 2025
When families hear ‘palliative care,’ they might not immediately associate it with ongoing support from the point of a cancer diagnosis or realize its focus on enhancing the quality of life alongside curative treatments.
Yet, palliative care offers a vital layer of comfort, symptom management, and emotional support. Even more empowering is the knowledge that this specialized care can often seamlessly integrate into a patient’s life through in-home care services.
In this blog, we’ll delve into the significant ways senior home care providers can help cancer patients by delivering compassionate palliative care right where they feel most at ease – their home.
What is Palliative Care?
Many folks get confused when talking about palliative care because they often think it’s one thing when, in reality, it’s much more extensive. Let’s define it and then talk about how it can help.
Palliative care is a specialized area of medical care focused on improving the quality of life for people living with serious illnesses like cancer, heart failure, lung disease, kidney disease, dementia, and many others.
Many don’t realize that this type of medical care isn’t just for end-of-life. Patients can choose to receive palliative care from diagnosis to the end. You don’t have to wait until a serious illness becomes overwhelming to explore holistic care and consider your needs.
The Benefits of Palliative Care in a Home Setting
Palliative care can provide many benefits, especially in a home setting. Here are just a few to get us started.
Symptom Relief & Comfort
With cancer care, patients find themselves faced with many side effects and symptoms that can’t always be handled medically. The job of a patient’s cancer doctor is to treat the cancer and give suggestions about the side effects. However, a palliative care situation can provide comfort and alternative relief.
The primary goal of palliative care is to provide relief from the symptoms and stress of a serious illness. This includes managing pain, nausea, fatigue, shortness of breath, anxiety, depression, and other distressing symptoms. A caregiver can provide all of these within the confines of a patient’s home.
Holistic Approach
Cancer might only affect a specific area of the body, but that doesn’t mean the whole person shouldn’t be considered when considering how to support them. The substantial benefit of palliative care is that it allows the caregiver to consider all elements of the person being cared for. This means considering their desires, goals, hopes, and beliefs.
If a patient is strong in their religious beliefs, there is a form of care to be found that is rooted in religious faith. Supporting a person’s faith can help keep their mental health on a positive track, which in turn will strengthen their resolve to fight illness. Half the battle with illness is believing in your own ability to survive, which goes hand-in-hand with your outside motivations and beliefs.
Improves Quality of Life
Anyone who has experienced cancer care knows that these particular drugs and treatment methods can decrease a person’s quality of life. They cause pain and exhaust the person to the point they can no longer participate in the things they once loved.
Palliative care specialists are experts in managing complex pain using a variety of medications, therapies (like nerve blocks), and complementary approaches. Reduced pain means more comfort, better sleep, and participation in activities. These caregivers can also address concerns such as vomiting/nausea, anxiety/depression, and existential crises.
Supports Patients and Their Families
When staring down the barrel of a serious illness, a significant concern will be, “Will I feel supported in my decisions?” Patients feel a loss of control in situations such as cancer. Therefore, treatment options should be centered on the patient to help them through the journey.
This is what makes palliative care so beneficial for everyone. An excellent way for palliative care providers to show their support for those affected is by creating a stress management plan. Not feeling supported by your care team can cause significant stress. A stress management directive can address these concerns on paper; it puts control back into the hands of the patient.
Cancer Patients and Palliative Care – Supporting the Patient
As we outlined above, cancer patients can significantly benefit from the palliative care approach, especially from the place most comforting to them: their home. In-home care allows for more flexibility and adaptation than care in hospitals or other medical settings.
Being able to relax in a bed that is all your own can work wonders on your symptoms and side effects from cancer treatment. Everyone does much better in anything they do when allowed to seek the place that makes them feel most comfortable.
Therefore, the best location to receive palliative care could be in-home. One less stressor out of the way will only enhance the benefits of such care efforts, especially considering a cancer battle comes with a multitude of challenges to a person’s mind, body, and spirit.
Working with the patient and their family to form a care plan is a great way to support them. Palliative care is often best approached as long-term care instead of short—or limited-term care. There are many ways to create this plan, all of which can be handled collaboratively.
Start the Conversation with Your Loved One in Mind
The first step in senior home care or serious illness care is to talk with doctors and caregivers. At Accessible, we offer many options for in-home care, especially long-term or palliative care.
Our caregivers are all trained and given the necessary tools to serve your family in the best way. We stay current with the latest trends and best practices for holistic, palliative, or medical care.
Contact us today to make a difference in the life of your seriously ill family member.
