What Are Palliative Care?

Palliative care is a comprehensive, humanized, and person-centered approach that seeks to relieve suffering in all its forms and promote dignity, comfort, and a sense of care throughout the course of a serious or life-threatening illness. In practice, this means looking at the patient as a whole — not just the diagnosis — considering their symptoms, their history, their values, their preferences, and also the impact of the illness on daily life and family relationships.

This form of care can be offered from the moment of diagnosis and often goes hand in hand with curative or disease-modifying treatments. It works across four essential dimensions: physically, by helping control pain, shortness of breath, nausea, fatigue, and other symptoms; emotionally, by offering listening, support, and reassurance in the face of fear, anxiety, sadness, or uncertainty; socially, by supporting the family, communication among those involved, and the organization of care in daily life; and spiritually, by respecting beliefs, meaning in life, hope, and existential questions that arise in moments of vulnerability.

Recognized by the World Health Organization as a fundamental human right to health, palliative care reinforces that every person has the right to be cared for with dignity, relief from suffering, and respect for their needs until the end of life — without abandonment, without loneliness, and without the idea that “there is nothing more to do.” There is always something to do: care, relieve, listen, and accompany with humanity.