Health visitor and a senior man during home visit. A female nurse or a doctor examining a man.
Facing a serious or chronic medical condition can be overwhelming for you, and your family. The expert caregivers with Chandler Hall Community Palliative Care have helped over 65 patients in our community since 2017 deal with the complex medical and functional challenges posed by severe and chronic illnesses such as:
- Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)
- Cancer
- Cardiac disease
- Dementia
- Parkinson’s Disease
and other diagnoses and conditions that can be life changing for patients and their families.
Living with a serious, chronic medical condition doesn’t necessarily mean changing your plans or goals. The Community Palliative Care Team from Chandler Hall can assist you and your family in designing a program to meet goals that you determine. Whether that’s to walk your daughter down the aisle at her wedding, or simply increase your comfort and mobility day to day, our Chandler Hall Community Palliative Care team can help coordinate care to make sure you and your family spend more time enjoying life together.
A serious diagnosis such as COPD, advanced cancer, debilitating cardiac conditions or even forms of dementia undoubtedly feel overwhelming for both patient and caregiver. It may even make you feel a little hopeless. But it doesn’t need to. The relatively new medical and nursing specialty of Palliative Care focuses on turning a devastating, life altering diagnosis into an opportunity to live your best life. And at Chandler Hall we take our role in providing outstanding Palliative Care services seriously. We strive to be the best so that you can live your best life.
What is Palliative Care? Why Should I consider adding it to my care plan?
Palliative care is specialized medical care for people living with a serious illness. This type of care is focused on providing relief from the symptoms and stress of the illness for both the patient and family. At Chandler Hall, we have been at the forefront of this innovative care that helps ensure people get the most out of life while coping with serious or chronic medical problems.
Who Provides Palliative Care?
Palliative care is provided by a team of specially trained doctors, nurses and other support specialists who work together with a patient’s other doctors to provide an extra layer of care. The approach is multidisciplinary and is designed to help reduce readmissions to the hospital, provide patient and family education and help reduce the stress of overall living with a serious medical condition.
Palliative Care does not replace treatment for a chronic or serious long term condition. It is a specialized kind of care designed to reduce pain and improve functioning and quality of life during treatment for the diagnosed condition. It is important to note that Palliative Care is not Hospice Care, which is reserved for the last 6 months of life. Palliative Care is comfort care.
How Palliative Care Works
Chandler Hall Community Palliative Care is compassionate, patient-centered care that focuses on helping you live your life on your terms. Our personalized Palliative Care aligns with your current treatment and that you can continue to see your current doctors. Chandler Hall’s team of Doctors, Nurses, Social Workers, Therapists and support staff all work in concert with you, your current physicians, family and caregivers to help you create a plan to meet goals that you have set for yourself. It is care that begins with an understanding of what matters most to you!
What are your goals? Do you want to spend the summer at the shore? Do you want to attend a family event or reunion? Do you want to get back to activities you have enjoyed but are now challenging? Or maybe you need some assistance helping to learn how to deal with your diagnosis and understand what goals are achievable – for you. Our skilled teams of nurses, medical staff, social workers and therapists will work with you and your family to help you understand the “possible” and execute the “probable”. In other words – live your best life.
When helping you create your treatment plan, we provide…
- Education about your illness to you and your caregivers
- Discuss your treatment preferences
- Document your personal goals and wishes such as Advanced Directives and Transition Planning for your family or caregivers.
- Provide recommendations regarding pain and symptom management
- Provide caregiver support
Advances in medicine, treatment options and at-home care have opened up new opportunities in improving quality of life and patient outcomes. Many health issues that were once considered life-ending are now manageable for long periods of time. But the experience of living with those health issues can vary greatly. That is why it is important to choose an experienced team of experts that is well versed in the latest advances in medicine/pain management.
Palliative Care at Chandler Hall employs all of those experts plus a team of experienced Social Workers and insurance and Medicare specialists who can help you navigate the sometimes complicated process of service eligibility and reimbursements.
Palliative Care at Chandler Hall is Patient-centered care. Chandler Hall is ready to help you create that plan for at-home care so that you can live your best life at home with the people that matter the most to you.
Contact our 24-hour Hotline at 267-291-2270 or email tbennett@ch.kendal.org to speak to our Palliative Care Specialist Terry Bennett. She will be happy to walk you through our program to determine if Chandler Hall’s Palliative Care at Home program is the right fit for you or your loved one.