Palliative & Supportive Care

Palliative care, a specialized type of medical care for people facing serious illness, can help relieve distressing symptoms and the stress of living with major health conditions. Palliative care delivers another layer of support for anyone of any age and works together with challenging curative treatments.

Expert Palliative & Supportive Care Close to Home

Even in the best of circumstances, dealing with serious illness can feel overwhelming. If you’re hospitalized at OU Health in Oklahoma City, you and your loved ones may take advantage of hospital-based palliative care services for support while you undergo active treatment for serious illness or life-limiting disease.

You become a key part of your healthcare team, which includes your primary care doctor and OU Health’s palliative care experts who know that true healing encompasses more than just physical rehabilitation. Read how palliative care brings comfort. You and your palliative care team treat the effects of your illness and its impact on your life and your family through a compassionate, whole-person approach.

Palliative Care Services & Treatments

While you deal with challenging curative treatments such as complex surgeries, chemotherapy, radiation or dialysis, rely on OU Health’s palliative care team for an extra layer of support. By requesting palliative care early in your treatment process, you’ll gain the greatest benefits such as:

• Reduction of symptoms that cause distress, including pain, fatigue, anxiety, nausea, breathing problems and more
• Spiritual, emotional and social support
• Pet therapy to reduce stress, fear, sadness or loneliness through therapeutic contact with service animals ranging from dogs to horses
• Coordinated care among various healthcare providers and settings
• Assistance with arrangements for home care and other services after discharge
• Help with creating an advance care plan that details your wishes for your future health care

Palliative Care vs Hospice Care

Palliative care helps anyone of any age who needs supportive care for challenging health conditions or treatments, while hospice links services to prognosis. Hospice care, a type of palliative care or palliation for those nearing the end of life, can often be provided at home by loved ones with the help of the hospice team, or in a nursing home or residential hospice facility. Hospices provide care in the hospital only under certain circumstances and only for a few days.

Your Palliative & Supportive Care Team

When you work with the palliative care team at OU Health, you receive comprehensive services from a multidisciplinary group of specialists with extensive experience in bringing compassionate care and relief to people who live with a wide range of health conditions. Your care team may include a palliative care provider or nurse, social worker, pharmacist, dietitian, counselor and spiritual advisor. You and your loved ones also play important roles as members of your palliative care team.