Palliative Care and Medico-Social Collaboration

To maintain a good quality of life for patients with terminal illness is more than just managing the physical symptoms. A multidisciplinary palliative care team is needed to address the different aspects of patients&s; needs over the course of the illness trajectory. While the patients may be under institutional care, seamless medical-social collaboration is essential to ensure a clear understanding of service plans and community resources available to them. This chapter focuses on palliative care collaborations in Hong Kong, including the facilitation of multidisciplinary teams and medical-social collaboration among different service settings to aid the continuity of care. The importance of person-centred approach in meeting the physical, emotional, social, and cultural needs of patients and their family members is also discussed, as well as the multidisciplinary management of pain and common symptoms.