Supportive Care Medicine - Palliative Care
The Cedars-Sinai Supportive Care Medicine Program provides specialized consultative services to patients living with serious illness. The team focuses on improving your quality of life by addressing disease-related or treatment-related symptoms, providing support to you and your family and assisting with advance care planning.
When Supportive Care Medicine is consulted to assist, you will remain under the care of your own doctors. The program's interdisciplinary team of providers works with your healthcare team to help manage your pain and any other symptoms. Team members also can assist with communication needs and advance healthcare planning to make sure that you are getting the care that fits your personal goals and values.
Is Supportive Care Medicine Right for You?
If you or your loved ones need additional support as a result of a serious illness, Supportive Care Medicine might be able to help. Examples of conditions that the program can help with include:
- Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease
- Cancer
- Dementia
- Heart disease
- Kidney failure
- Liver disease
- Multiple sclerosis
- Parkinson's disease
- Stroke
How Supportive Care Medicine Will Help You
Pain and Symptom Care
Supportive Care Medicine team members are experts at managing your pain and other symptoms related to your serious illness. Examples of other symptoms they can assist with include nausea, fatigue, poor appetite, difficulty sleeping and feeling sad or worried. The team will work closely with your primary care doctor and your other specialists to help you address any healthcare issues that are caused by your illness or the treatments you are receiving.
Arranging Family Meetings with Your Doctors
The team can make sure you are making the right choices for your care by bringing everyone together to talk about your condition, giving you a chance to ask questions and decide what is best for you.
Spiritual and Social Support
Speaking with the team's licensed clinical social workers and chaplains about your spiritual, social or emotional concerns can improve your mood and relieve stress throughout your treatment. They can also assist with connecting you to community-based support resources that fit your needs.
Advance Care Planning
Your care providers and family members should know your goals, preferences and choices about your healthcare. Supportive Care Medicine team members have expertise in advance care planning. Working with you and your loved ones, team members will take the time to listen, answer questions and guide you toward completing your own advance directive.
As an additional resource to you, Cedars-Sinai offers a free advance care planning class each month that provides an introduction to the topic. Discussion topics may include: how to designate someone to speak for you if you are unable to make your own healthcare decisions, how to discuss priorities and wishes with your family, and how to figure out what is most important to you in the event your health worsens.
When: Second Tuesday of each month, 10 a.m.-noon
Where: 8501 Wilshire Blvd.,
Beverly Hills, CA 90211
First floor conference room (next to Suite 130)
Parking: Parking garage is accessible on N. Le Deux Road. Parking will be validated.
When: Fourth Tuesday of each month, 6:30-8:30 p.m.
Where: 127 S. San Vicente Blvd.,
Los Angeles, CA 90048
Conference room PEC 8, Plaza Level
Parking: Lot 4 by Advanced Health Sciences Pavilion. Entrance is on San Vicente Blvd. Parking will be validated.