Clinical Practice Guidelines for Quality Palliative Care

June 2006 Clinical Practice Guidelines for Quality Palliative CareThis executive summary presents a professional consensus from five major United States palliative care organizations on clinical guidelines for quality palliative care services. The effort to integrate palliative care into all health care for persons with debilitating and life-threatening illnesses should help to ensure that:Pain and symptom control, psychosocial distress, spiritual issues, and practical needs are addressed with the patient and family throughout the continuum of care   Patients and families obtain the information they need in an on-going and understandable manner, in order to grasp their condition and treatment . . .