Our Clinical Services

Palliative Care is a specialty dedicated to the treatment and support of people with serious and chronic illnesses. The overall goal is to improve the quality of life for people, their families, and caregivers. Our team works with you and your doctors to help provide relief from the symptoms, pain, and stress of a serious illness. This support is appropriate throughout all stages of illness and can be provided along with curative treatment. The Palliative Care team will strive to enhance your care experience at Stanford.

There are two things that are the hallmark of our service:

1)   Dedication: All team members are ambassadors for palliative care and are passionate about making our services accessible to all patients and families who need them

2)   Interdisciplinary Team: We have physicians, social workers, advance practice nurses, and chaplains who are part of our team. We believe that the interdisciplinary team approach is the best way to address the needs of patients and families living with a serious illness

Our model of care is based on the Biopsychosocial Spiritual Model. This model describes that providing support to people living with serious illness, their caregivers, and families requires paying attention to:

• Body- physical illness
• Mind - mental and emotional distress 
• Spirit - existential distress
• Community- Social needs that connection to community resources can meet 

• Specialized and meticulous prevention and management of symptoms, including pain and side effects of treatments
• Excellent and ongoing communication about the illness, and the person's goals, values, beliefs, and priorities
• Psychological care (mental and emotional health care)
• Spiritual care
• Resources and information to address social needs (finances, housing, transportation, food, and more)
• Care addressing caregiver and family needs

Many people living with serious illness, families, caregivers, and healthcare providers confuse palliative care with hospice. Palliative care can be provided to people at any age and at any stage of a serious illness. It can be delivered alongside curative treatment, and your palliative care team will work collaboratively with your other doctors to help provide coordinated care.

Hospice care refers to a philosophy of care that prioritizes comfort over life-prolonging or curative-seeking therapies. It is also an insurance benefit that provides a bundle of services.

Palliative care is a specialized field that can alleviate suffering during every stage of a serious illness, including while treatments designed to cure the illness are received.  Hospice is one part of palliative care that people can receive at the very end of life.