Palliative Care, as defined by the World Health Organization and the Institute of Medicine, seeks to provide the total active care of patients whose disease is not responsive to curative treatment. Control of pain, of other symptoms, and of psychological, social, and spiritual problems is paramount. The goal of palliative care is achievement of the best quality of life for patients and their families. It affirms life, and regards dying as a normal process. It neither hastens nor prolongs death. Using an interdisciplinary team approach, palliative care can be applied not only to those dying or in a hospice program, but can also serve those patients undergoing active and aggressive treatment for cancer or other life-threatening conditions regardless of prognosis if they have unrelieved suffering with impaired quality of life.

            The mission of the Palliative Care Institute of Southeast Louisiana, as a nonprofit tax-exempt organization, is to educate physicians, nurses, other  healthcare professionals, students in all the health professions, and the community how to improve the care received by patients and families facing life-threatening conditions. Until very recently there was little emphasis placed on this subject in the curricula of medical schools, and little training about pain control. Since 2002 we have provided workshops, seminars, and lectures to practicing physicians, nurses, social workers and counselors, and to medical, nursing, and social work students throughout southeast Louisiana and southern Mississippi. We have collaborated with  and partnered  with Tulane, LSUHSC,  Ochsner Clinic Foundation,  local hospices and  area hospitals, supported by community and foundation grants to the Palliative Care Institute.

            The long-term goal of the Institute is create changes in the manner in which the medical community views death and dying, and appreciates the value of palliative care services to help relieve suffering and impaired quality of life of  patients and their families by receiving caring, compassionate treatment at any age, anywhere , and at any time in the course of a life-threatening condition.