The Many Stories of Palliative Care

One of the newest medical specialties around, palliative care may also be one of the least understood. It is not not synonymous with either end-of-life care or with hospice care, though it often plays an important role in each. It is also not only about pain control through medications alone. I think of it as a holistic approach to all dimensions of suffering -- pain control when and as needed, as well as psychosocial, emotional, and spiritual care. As this list suggests, good palliative care is a multi-disciplinary team approach to suffering. 

Herein the sermon endeth.

If your eyes started to glaze over while you read that first paragraph, you're likely to be in good company. Understanding what palliative care is about, what it can and cannot accomplish, like most things worth doing in life, is best understood through the stories of patients, various health care professionals, families, administrators, etc.

Fortunately there is a book that does just that, bringing to life the practice of palliative care and in doing so bringing us to a deeper understanding of what palliative care seeks to accomplish and how. I am thinking of The Pursuit of Life: The Promise and Challenges of Palliative Care, a collection of essays edited by my SMU colleague (in Perkins School of Theology) Jack Levison and my long-time collaborator and friend, Bob Fine. You can read about it on the BMJ Supportive and Palliative Care blog and if you are moved to do as I did, you can purchase a copy over at Amazon.