Palliative care.

Palliative care is a multidisciplinary medical care approach for people with serious or life-threatening illnesses. These patients often suffer from severe pain, shortness of breath, fatigue, difficulty sleeping, or other distressing physical symptoms. They and their families may also experience stress or even depression while trying to cope with the patients' illnesses. The goal of palliative care is to maximize quality of life through pain management, symptom control as well as psychosocial support. Receiving palliative care does not mean that the patient has to stop the primary curative treatment. Instead, palliative care is like another layer of support on top of the original medical treatment plan. Palliative program not only cares for the patient, but also his or her family. It designs an individualized plan of care taking into consideration the patient and the family's needs, values, beliefs, and goals.