Palliative Care for Better Quality of Life Now If you or a family member is living with a serious illness, specialized medical care is available to help control your symptoms and make you more comfortable right now. What is Palliative Care? Expand Content Palliative care (pronounced pal-lee-uh-tiv) is specialized medical care for people with serious illnesses. Palliative care is focused on the unique physical, psychological and spiritual needs of patients living with serious or life threatening illness.

Caregivers often feel they have little time to attend to their own needs. This is especially true in caring for loved ones with a serious or life-threatening illness. It is critical that you care for your own physical health and well-being. Equally critical is that you connect with family and friends who can support you. Ignoring your needs can lead to health problems of your own, physical and mental exhaustion, and isolation. This added stress makes it even harder for you to care for your loved one at this important time for both of you.

Each Inova hospital has a team of experienced palliative care physicians and other clinicians to provide palliative care for either you or your loved one. Go here if you would like to find out more about palliative care at a specific Inova hospital.

Helpful Documents and Sites Advance Directives Forms for Virginia, Maryland, Washington, DC, and West Virginia Advance Directive Resource Sheet  Advance Directive Tool Kit  "Your Right to Decide" Booklet Online Registry Fact Sheet  Glossary of Palliative Care Terms  Personal experiences with palliative care  Quiz – "Is Palliative Care for Me?" Additional Information Aging with Dignity's Five Wishes Aging with Dignity is a national non-profit organization, inspired by the life and work of Mother Teresa of Calcutta.

Physician Testimonial Joanne Ondrush, MD  Director of Medical Critical Care Services Inova Fairfax Hospital"I find the palliative care service a tremendous asset to my patients. The palliative care team is immediately available, seeing patients sometimes within the hour of my call. The physicians are compassionate and patient, having those difficult, time-consuming conversations which occur often in the ICU setting.

Helpful Websites PalliativeDrugs.com This website provides essential, comprehensive and independent information for health professionals about the use of drugs in palliative care. Palliative.info A website offering links to a variety of assessment and evaluation tools. Palliative Care Tools Program evaluation tools developed or used by PEELC grantees and a resource of validated, published key clinical assessment and research tools used int he field of palliative care.

Charitable giving can be a powerful and meaningful part of healing. Frequently patients and families express interest in making a charitable gift of gratitude for the remarkable work of Palliative Care Services at Inova. If you would like to make a gift to support palliative care services at Inova, contribute online with a credit card using our secure site. To designate your gift for Inova Palliative Care Services, specify Palliative Care Services in the Comments field under Additional Information.

Chairman of Department of Pathology Hassan Nayer, MD A member of Inova Medical Group Close description about Inova Medical Group members The doctors of Inova Medical Group are Inova’s premier primary care and specialty physicians, offering top-notch medical expertise, full access to Inova facilities, and the convenience of integrated electronic medical records. Specialty: Pathology-Anatomic/Pathology-Clinical, Hematology Close description about Inova Medical Group members Board-certified specialties granted by an ABMS Member Board. Learn more about board certification.

What is Radiation Therapy? Radiation therapy is the use of high-energy X-rays, electrons or other sources of radiation to treat diseases – usually cancer. It can also be used to treat noncancerous conditions, including blocked coronary arteries. Radiation therapy works by damaging the genetic material within cancer cells. Once this happens, the cancer cells are not able to grow and spread. When these damaged cancer cells die, the body naturally removes them. Normal cells are also affected by radiation, but they can repair themselves in a way that cancer cells cannot.

Inova Alexandria Hospital - Center for Rehabilitative Care 4320 Seminary Rd. Alexandria, VA 22304 (Map and directions)703-504-3535 Services offered: physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, cancer rehab program, cardiac rehab, hand therapy, lymphedema therapy, stroke rehab, swallow evaluation and vestibular/balance rehabilitation and pelvic healthLearn more Inova Fairfax Hospital Rehabilitation Services Inova Fairfax Hospital Inpatient Rehabilitation 8081 Innovation Park Dr.