The following offers a brief overview of key points from this important document with a specific focus on what it says about palliative care and hospice. In 2020, the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith released the letter Samaritanus bonus, “on the care of persons in the critical and terminal phases of life.” The letter reaffirms the Church’s teaching on care for those who are critically ill or dying and offers additional pastoral guidance for increasingly complex situations at the end of life. Hospice helps patients live well with their remaining time on earth by ceasing curative measures and continuing to focus on goals of comfort and symptom management, as well as the provision of psychological, spiritual, and social support that patients and families need. Hospice is for patients in the end stages of a condition (typically the last six months of life) for which curative treatment is no longer effective. The hospice team of physicians, nurses, social workers and chaplains addresses the patient’s and family’s concerns related to the illness and approaching death. Hospice care is a type of palliative care but with a particular acknowledgement of, and focus on, the patient’s approaching end of life-when the goal of care is no longer cure of disease but rather comfort and relief from it. The palliative care team works in service of the patient to coordinate all aspects of care, communication and decision making, as well as clarification and adjustment of the goals of care over time, all while also offering support to the family. Palliative care is holistic because it is provided by a team of physicians, nurses, social workers, chaplains, and other professionals who focus on physical pain and symptom management, as well as psychosocial and spiritual needs. These goals may change with the progression of the disease or condition. Care may pursue both curative and comfort goals that can be carried out over months, years, and decades. Patients are candidates for palliative care whenever they are facing a serious illness. Palliative care is specialized medical care for people with serious illness, focusing on relief from symptoms and stress while they are still seeking curative treatment.
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