Palliative Care

Compassionate, Specialized Care

Palliative care is specialized medical care for people living with serious illness. It focuses on providing relief from the symptoms and stress of a serious illness. The goal is to improve quality of life for both the patient and the family. 

Our team and our partners include physicians, nurses, social workers and chaplains to address physical, emotional and spiritual needs. 

Palliative Care Team

Palliative care seeks to:

• Respect patient autonomy, values and decisions
• Continually clarify the goals of care
• Discuss options for care
• Manage distressing symptoms
• Ensure clear communication between the medical teams, patients and their family members
• Provide emotional and psychosocial support to the patient and their family members
• Ensure a smooth transition across healthcare settings
• Care can be provided in conjunction with other medical treatments

The Palliative Care team aims to improve quality of life for those living with a serious illness by providing compassionate, specialized care provided by medical professionals who are specialized in palliative medicine.

Palliative medicine is a subspecialty of medicine that works with patients, their families, and their specialty medical teams to improve the quality of life for those living with a serious or advanced illness. Over time, these illness can have a greater negative impact on a person’s quality of life. 

Our team and partners include physicians, nurses, social workers, and chaplains, who address the physical, social, emotional and spiritual needs. 

The Palliative Care team works in conjunction with other teams that may include:

• Physical therapy
• Occupational therapy
• Speech therapy
• Pharmacy
• Nutrition

Dr. Chris Black now offers an outpatient palliative care clinic located at Freeman Center for Geriatric Medicine at 931 E. 32nd Street in Joplin. For more information about the outpatient clinic call 417.347.4374.

Helpful Links:
Prepareforyourcare.org 

The Conversation Project - https://theconversationproject.org/

Durable Power of Attorneys - www.mobar.org

Advanced Medical Directives/Living Wills - https://www.cancer.org/cancer/managing-cancer/making-treatment-decisions/advance-directives/types-of-advance-health-care-directives.html

Link to Code Status Decision Aid - https://www.altru.org/patients-visitors/care-planning-directives/the-meaning-of-code-status-polst/

Center to Advanced Palliative Care - https://www.capc.org/

Choosing Wisely - https://abimfoundation.org/what-we-do/choosing-wisely

Insurance coverage - https://getpalliativecare.org/palliative-care-is-covered-under-both-public-and-private-insurance-plans/
 

For more information on Freeman Palliative Care services, please call 417.347.4094.