Palliative Care

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines palliative care as:

"The comprehensive care of physical, psychosocial, and spiritual symptoms in patients whose illness no longer responds to curative treatment"

The term originates from the Latin palliare, meaning "mitigate"

The objective of palliative care is to relieve symptoms and address psychosocial and spiritual aspects in order to improve quality of life and respect for dignity and autonomy.

According to the criteria of the Spanish Society of Palliative Care (SECPAL), a patient can receive care from the comprehensive transdisciplinary care service if:

·       Are living with an advanced, progressive, incurable, degenerative, or terminal illness

·       Have no possibility of responding to curative treatment

·       If they have complicated, intense, multiple, multifactorial, and changing symptoms

·       Experiencing significant emotional impact, whether in the patient, their family, or the care team, related to the presence (explicit or implicit) of death.

·       This means that palliative care can be offered from the onset of an illness and also when there is a life expectancy of less than six months for terminal patients.