The goal of palliative care is to provide comfort and maintain the highest possible quality of life. The term ‘quality of life’ is used a lot and will mean different things to different people.

Quality of life often includes:

• being comfortable and pain free
• being able to socialise or spend time with loved ones
• having as much independence as possible
• not being a burden
• feeling emotionally well.

It is important for the patient and family carer to be included in any decisions about treatment and care as these can affect quality of life. Sometimes for example, the side effects of a treatment can make people very unwell. Some people feel that having treatments that may prolong life, but without maintaining quality, may be worse than not having the treatment at all. It may be more important to these people to focus on the quality of life for the time that may be left.

Related CareSearch pages
Course of illness
Changes over time
 

This page was created on 26 May 2009 and is due for review in May 2011