Palliative Care Partners

What is Palliative Care?

Palliative Care focuses on relief from pain, the symptoms and the stress of serious illness with a goal of improving quality of life for patients and their families. It is a team-based approach, involving specialty-trained doctors, nurses, and social workers who work with the patient's other health care providers to offer an extra layer of support.

Palliative Care providers work to ensure patients have a thorough understanding of their illness and to also gain an understanding of what is most important to the patient. This results in a combination of treatments that meet the individual patient's goals, including:

• Understanding their illness
• Making decisions about their care
• Managing pain and other symptoms
• Providing emotional and spiritual support

Ideally, palliative care is provided shortly after the diagnosis of a serious illness and is available to the patient and family over time, in a variety care settings. Palliative care is appropriate at any age and can be provided at the same time as curative treatments.

Our Services

Inpatient Facilities: 

• Ellis Hospital, Schenectady
• Samaritan Hospital, Troy
• St. Peter's Hospital, Albany

Palliative Care Partners At Home

Palliative Care Partners provides palliative care teams, including a palliative care physician, nurse practitioner, social worker, and chaplain, across a variety of settings and locations across the Capital Region.

We are currently offering virtual community palliative care appointments, as well as home visits. 

Home-Based Primary Care / Palliative Care

St. Peter's Health Partners Medical Associates Home-Based Primary Care Program serves patients and families in their homes, ensuring access to basic primary care for some of the most complex, homebound, chronically ill patients in our community, including palliative care services.

Advance Care Planning

The Palliative Care process can also include Advance Care Planning. It is a continual process and not merely a document or isolated event; it allows you to plan for future medical care in the event you are unable to make your own decisions. Advance Care Planning is a gift to you and your family, as it allows you to maintain control over how you are treated and to ensure that you experience the type of care and the type of death that you desire. Visit Advance Care Planning for more information.

Resources

Palliative Care Brochure 
Coping With a Serious Illness