Palliative Care

The word "palliative" means to lessen the painfulness of a situation or to comfort. At Providence Hospital, our mission of caring extends to every phase of life - even the last phase.
The Palliative care service is a comprehensive, multidisciplinary care program for patients with advanced illness, with an emphasis on quality of life. The goal is to enable the patient to live with quality and dignity, leaving behind family and friends who are secure in the knowledge that they did all they could to make the last days caring ones.

While patients are in Providence Hospital, they can benefit from access to a team of experienced clinicians who focus on maintaining the best possible quality of life through:

  • Pain and symptom management
  • Disease education and advance care planning
  • Psychosocial and spiritual support
  • Coordination of community services
  • Bereavement counseling

We also offer these same services in addition to volunteer social support and spiritual counseling to the residents of the Carroll Manor Nursing and Rehabilitation Center.

The palliative care service also coordinates a caregiver's support program. This program is a series of five educational seminars on the practical issues facing caregivers as well as a supportive atmosphere where caregivers can share their feelings about similar situations. Topics include:

  • Basic caregiving
  • Advance directives/end-of-life decision-making
  • Communication with healthcare professionals
  • Self-care for the caregiver
  • Resources for the caregiver

These seminars are held at the Model Cities and Congress Heights Senior Centers and are free and open to the public.

When you lose someone close to you, the palliative care service is there to assist you through its grief recovery program. This five-week program provides education about grief as well as a forum for sharing concerns and feelings around the loss.
This program is held quarterly. Topics include:

  • Understanding grief
  • Remembering
  • Relationships & role changes
  • Feelings and stress
  • Holidays and anniversaries

For more information on our services, please call (202) 269-7051.