Do you need a referral for palliative care?

Ask your oncology team, primary care doctor or hospital which route is available. You can request palliative care while receiving treatment for cancer; access is based on supportive needs and treatment goals, not only on whether disease-directed treatment has stopped.

The palliative care team helps manage concerns such as pain, breathlessness, nausea, fatigue, poor appetite, sleep problems and emotional distress. It can also support communication about priorities, treatment choices, family concerns and care at home. The team works alongside oncology and other clinicians, and its recommendations are tailored to the person's symptoms, medicines and preferences.

Tell your current clinician which symptoms or practical problems are hardest to manage and how they affect eating, movement, sleep or daily care. Ask whether the service offers clinic, hospital or home-based appointments and whom to call between visits. Keep an updated medicine list, including non-prescription products, and note treatments that have helped or caused unwanted effects.

Follow your care team's urgent contact plan for new severe pain, major breathing difficulty, uncontrolled vomiting, heavy bleeding, seizures, sudden confusion, collapse or inability to wake normally. If no urgent number is available, contact emergency services. For symptoms that are worsening but not immediately dangerous, call the oncology or palliative team promptly so medicines and support can be reviewed.

Ask who coordinates your symptom medicines, whether palliative care can visit at home, what help is available for caregivers and how to obtain equipment if mobility changes. You may also want to discuss advance care planning, whom the team can share information with, and what to do if symptoms worsen during evenings or weekends.