When a serious illness is at the stage where the pain or other debilitating symptoms are too much to bear, Mosaic Life’s Palliative Care in St. Joseph, works to relieve the pain and other issues in order to improve a patient’s quality of life and help ease the burden for the patient’s family.
Our Palliative Care in St. Joseph provides:
- Support due to frequent or prolonged hospital stays.
- Pain management or symptom relief.
- Exploration of goals of care.
- Assistance with decision-making and advance care planning.
How is the Palliative Care Process Started?
When considering palliative care, the first meeting may take place while you or a loved one is in the hospital or in an outpatient clinic. During the consultation, your palliative care team will talk with you about your symptoms, current treatments and how this illness is affecting you and your family. You and your palliative care team make a plan to prevent and ease suffering and improve your daily life. This plan will be carried out in coordination with your primary care team in a way that works well with any other treatment you or a loved one is receiving.
Goals and Expectations of Palliative Care
Alleviating and managing pain as much as possible to allow for the highest quality of life possible is the goal to our palliative care support service.
Palliative care may be offered to people of any age who have a serious or life-threatening illness. It can help adults and children living with illnesses such as:
- Cancer
- Blood and bone marrow disorders requiring stem cell transplant
- Heart disease
- Cystic fibrosis
- Dementia
- End-stage liver disease
- Kidney failure
- Lung disease
- Parkinson's disease
- Stroke
Mosaic Palliative Care Services
We can help manage symptoms such as:
- Pain
- Shortness of breath
- Nausea and loss of appetite
- Constipation
- Confusion
- Depression and anxiety
Other forms of support our palliative care provides offer includes:
- Emotional
- Social
- Spiritual
- Resource options
- Facilitation of family meetings
- Address code status
- Completion of advance directives/DPOA paperwork
- Assistance with long-term goals
A Palliative Care team may consist of the following individuals depending on the patient’s needs, situation and doctor’s instructions.
- Registered Nurses (RN) and Advanced Practice Registered Nurses (APRN) – assess and treat symptoms to promote maximum level of wellness and independence for patients with terminal illnesses.
