Palliative care

Abstract

Home-based palliative care is emerging as an important component of home-based medical care. Because a majority of homebound adults have serious illness and high symptom burden, every home-based medical provider should be well-versed in basic palliative care skills. This chapter describes communication strategies to clarify patient’s goals of care, rationale and approaches to prognostication, and management of common symptoms experienced in the home (depression, pain, anorexia, and dyspnea). In addition, it covers the basic principles and framework of hospice care and tools to support advance care planning.