NINR recognizes palliative care as a critical component of high-quality, evidence-based health care that improves the quality of life for those suffering from the symptoms of serious illness. It developed its palliative care brochure, "Palliative Care: The Relief You Need When You're Experiencing the Symptoms of Serious Illness," to increase awareness of the many benefits of this comprehensive treatment among patient and caregiving populations, the general public, the media, and health care providers.
Palliative Care's Many Benefits
Palliative care, which is available to patients of any age and at any stage of an illness, provides relief from distressing symptoms such as pain, shortness of breath, fatigue, nausea, loss of appetite, problems with sleep, and many other symptoms. It can also help patients deal with the side effects of curative treatments.
Palliative care is different from hospice care—patients do not have to give up their curative treatments to receive it. “Although often seen as an end-of-life protocol, palliative care provides relief to patients dealing with chronic illnesses as well, including HIV/AIDS, cystic fibrosis, and diseases of the heart, lungs, and kidneys,” says NINR Director Patricia A. Grady.
Palliative care also strives to improve communication between patients and their health care providers and family members and to coordinate care, especially as patients transition from the hospital to home or to another care facility.
Cuidados Paliativos: Symptom Relief for the Hispanic Community
For the Hispanic population, language and cultural barriers can add to the burden of serious illness. NINR developed a Spanish-language version of its brochure, "Cuidados Paliativos: El alivio que necesita cuando tiene sÃntomas de una enfermedad grave," to increase awareness of palliative care’s many benefits among Hispanic patient and caregiving populations and care providers who serve Hispanic communities.
“By providing this information in Spanish and English, we seek to increase the number of provider-patient conversations about palliative care resources, so that fewer patients suffer needlessly from pain and distressing symptoms,” says NINR Director Patricia A. Grady.
Inside the Brochure
Both the English and the Spanish version of NINR’s palliative care brochure highlight what palliative care is, who it benefits, and how it works. They also address:
- how to decide if someone needs palliative care
- how to ask a health care provider for palliative care
- how palliative care differs from hospice care
- what kind of specialists participate on a palliative care team
- insurance coverage for palliative care treatment
To download your free copy, select either English or Spanish.
NINR will provide up to 10 complementary print copies of the brochure per requester. To order, send an email specifying the quantity, language, and your mailing address to info@ninr.nih.gov or call 301-496-0207.
To learn more about NINR’s palliative care research agenda, you may wish to read “Bringing Science to Life: NINR Strategic Plan,” available here.
To see more NINR publications, click here.
Note: Some files listed here are PDFs, requiring Acrobat Reader to view. Acrobat Reader can be downloaded here.
