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Palliative Care Specialists Can Reduce Your Pain and Speed Healing

The hospital health team you didn t know you had

Edmon de Haro/AARP David Griffiths couldn’t breathe. The 69-year-old cinematographer had been losing his voice for months. Then, one night last summer, he woke up gasping for breath. Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of discounts, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP the Magazine. “It was frightening,” says Griffiths. “I walked around all night because I was afraid to go back to sleep.” The next day at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan, an ENT (ear, nose and throat doctor) probed Griffiths’ throat and discovered a huge white tumor wrapped around his larynx — crushing his windpipe, his esophagus and his vocal cords. Doctors rushed Griffiths into surgery to place a breathing tube in his throat and, over the next few days, inserted a feeding tube in his stomach and a port in his shoulder for delivering medication. Griffiths would need five kinds of chemotherapy, plus radiation, to shrink the tumor and kill the cancer. He’d spend the next six months traveling to and from the hospital several times a week for outpatient treatment and IV rehydration. He was unable to work, or even ride the subway, because he couldn’t risk catching an infection. The unrelenting pain in his neck made it nearly impossible to sleep. But unlike most people who enter the hospital with a severe illness, Griffiths had a secret source of strength: the Mount Sinai team. Comprising a specially trained doctor, nurses and other practitioners, the team helped Griffiths deal with the pain, stress and logistics of his treatment. In addition to making sure he was on the right dosage of morphine, his palliative care team helped him get rides to and from the hospital, provided a nutritionist, helped coordinate his care with all of his other doctors and answered any questions he had in between visits. “They were fantastic,” Griffiths says. “They kept a close eye on me.” Griffiths’ experience may sound exceptional, but it needn’t be. Palliative care specialists are available at most major hospitals, and they can ease your pain, reduce your stress and perhaps even improve your chance of survival. Their services are typically covered by private insurance, Medicare or Medicaid. So why haven’t you heard of them? To get expert tips to help feel your best, get .

Health care s best-kept secret

Most people hear the words “palliative care” and think “hospice,” but they are different . Hospice is reserved for when curative treatments have been exhausted and patients have less than six months to live. Palliative care, on the other hand, is a team-based medical specialty focused on providing relief from the symptoms and stress of a serious illness — care that you can get at any age and at any stage of your illness. AARP Membership — $12 for your first year when you sign up for Automatic Renewal Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of discounts, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP the Magazine. Entertainment $3 off popcorn and soft drink combos See more Entertainment offers > “People who get palliative care feel better; avoid preventable 911 calls, ER visits and hospitalizations; and stay independent and in better control at home,” says CAPC director Diane Meier, professor of geriatrics and palliative medicine at Mount Sinai. “They have someone who can help if a crisis arises in the middle of the night.”
Morrison says a palliative care provider acts like “a quarterback,” working closely with the other team members — which may include a nurse, a chaplain and a social worker—as well as the patient’s other doctors. Communication is critical because one of the major issues people living with serious illness face is the fragmentation of our health care system. “People don’t talk to each other — a particular specialist is only interested in his or her particular organ system,” Morrison says. “My role is to make communication easier by coordinating care.” “Let your specialist focus on treating your disease, prolonging your life, ideally curing you,” says Meier. “Let your palliative care team focus on everything else.”

How to get the care you need

Approximately 6 million people in the United States have a need for palliative care, according to the CAPC. But most patients don’t know about their options. “The grave majority who could benefit from care are not getting it,” says Meier. One reason is workforce shortages. “There just isn’t enough staff to address the widespread suffering of seriously ill people in hospitals,” she says, “not to mention the much larger numbers of similar people who are not hospitalized.”
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