Priority 5: Palliative Care

Palliative care is a critical component of comprehensive and compassionate cancer treatment. Palliative care helps relieve cancer symptoms, pain, and stress and improves a person’s quality of life through emotional and spiritual support. Effective palliative care requires interdisciplinary teams and coordinated care that help match treatment and support services to individualized needs for each patient. While receiving palliative care, the complementing medical care may be focused on relieving symptoms or a treatment intended to cure the cancer.

Palliative Care Goal: Ensure that all people in Massachusetts know what palliative care is and receive palliative care when and where they need it.

Objective 1: Increase the number of people in Massachusetts who understand the application of palliative care across the lifespan, beyond hospice and end of life care, by December 2029.

Objective 2: Establish widespread, equitable insurance coverage and reasonable reimbursement for palliative care by 2029.

Objective 3: Increase the number of care professionals who are trained in palliative care competencies by 2029.

Objective 4: Develop clear referral pathways and care navigation to advance equitable access to palliative care services throughout the state by 2027.