Palliative care, also known as comfort care, is a kind of care for people who have illnesses that do not go away and often get worse with time. The goal of palliative care is to improve quality of life-not just in the body, but also in the mind and spirit.

Many people combine palliative care with other types of treatment.

Palliative care can help manage symptoms, pain, or side effects from treatment. It can help people cope with their feelings about living with a chronic illness. It may even help with planning around future health and medical care.

Hospice of Marin and Marin General Hospital offer an innovative program to help patients with chronic pain or life-threatening illnesses manage symptoms and live as pain-free as possible.

Palliative care is multidisciplinary and involves prevention, assessment and treatment of pain and other physical, psycho-social and spiritual aspects of a person’s illness.

Patients who are hospitalized at Marin General receive pain management services along with whatever ongoing treatment their physician has planned for them.

The Palliative Care Team periodically assesses the patient's situation and consults with the primary care physician regularly to ensure the best level of care. Medications are discussed with the physician, and the patient's family is encouraged to ask questions and stay active in decision-making.