Palliative Care

Unity’s palliative program improves quality of life during serious illness. Care can be provided along with curative treatment and uses a team-centered approach to manage the symptoms, stress, and anxiety related to illness.

Palliative Care:

• Focuses on providing you with relief from the symptoms and stress of a serious illness
• Is provided by a specialty trained team of doctors, nurse practitioners, registered nurses, social workers and other specialists who work together with your providers to deliver and extra layer of support
• Is appropriate at any age and at any stage in a serious illness
• Can be provided along with curative treatment
• Is based on your need, not your prognosis

Supportive Care Management IS Unity’s palliative care program.

Your Supportive Care Management team works in collaboration with your primary care and/or specialty doctor to enhance your quality of life and help you achieve your symptom management goals. Supportive Care Management, Unity’s palliative program:

• Provides an extra layer of support and education for you and your family when living with a serious illness
• Uses a team-centered approach to address your symptoms and the stress you may feel
• The goal is to predict, prevent, and improve quality of life by having open conversations about treatments and goals of care
• This is not meant to replace your primary care and/or specialty providers. The SCM team will work closely with your providers to make recommendations which will help you achieve your symptom management goals. 

Supportive Care Management, Unity’s palliative care program, can be helpful at any stage of serious illness and is best provided soon after a person is diagnosed. In addition to improving quality of life and helping with symptoms, palliative care can help patients understand their choices for medical treatment.

Be assured that you may receive palliative care at the same time that you pursue a cure for your illness. You won't be required to give up your regular doctors or treatments or hope for a cure.

Palliative care may also be a good option if you have a serious disease that has prompted multiple hospitalizations or emergency room visits during the previous year.

Anyone with one or more of the following diagnoses would benefit from the holistic, medical care offered by Unity’s Supportive Care Management team:

Diagnosis may include, but are not limited to:

• Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
• AIDS
• Cancer (metastatic or hematologic)
• End stage renal failure (ESRD or CKD V)
• Dementia especially in the early stages to allow clear goals and plans for the future
• Advanced liver disease or cirrhosis
• Diabetes with severe complications – ischemic heart disease, peripheral vascular disease, or chronic kidney disease
• COPD or interstitial lung disease – only if using home oxygen or ever hospitalized for the condition
• CHF – if ever hospitalized for the condition

Additional considerations may include:

• Those with serious illness that may need assistance to support activities of daily living (ADL)
• Increased frequency of office visits, ED visits, and hospitalizations in the past 12 months

Unity brings Supportive Care Management to you. Our care team makes visits anywhere you call home throughout our 14 county service area. Whether you reside in your own home or apartment, a family member’s home, an assisted living facility, or skilled nursing home, Unity will be there to provide an extra layer of support.

As a nonprofit organization serving residents throughout Northeastern Wisconsin, Unity’s commitment to the community is to care for everyone who is eligible for services, regardless of their ability to pay. In general, Medicare, Medicaid, and most commercial insurances cover the cost of Supportive Care Management services. Private payment is also an option. 

Prior to enrolling in Supportive Care Management, Unity will verify your insurance coverage. As a nonprofit organization, Unity also offers CommUnity Care, a financial assistance program. If you do not have health insurance, financial assistance may be available. Unity billing coordinators will work with you to determine if you qualify for CommUnity Care.

• We're here for you Monday - Friday between 8:00am - 4:00pm for urgent or nonurgent needs. Call Unity at 920-338-1111. 
• For evenings, weekends and holidays for urgent needs that cannot wait, call your Primary Care Provider or Specialist.
• If you are unable to reach your Primary Care Provider or Specialist, you may contact Unity after office hours at 920-338-1111.

Anyone can make a referral – a patient, family member, friend, spiritual leader, social worker, or doctor. Early referrals ensure you or your family member can benefit from all that Unity provides.

No, if you think you and your family could benefit from the support of home care visits from a team who specialize in pain and symptom management, medication management, emotional and spiritual support, you can ask your doctor if Supportive Care Management might be something to consider now, or in the near future. You can also call Unity now to request Supportive Care Management at 920-338-1111.

No. It's true that palliative care does serve many people with life-threatening or terminal illnesses. But some people are cured and no longer need palliative care. Others move in and out of palliative care, as needed.

However, if you decide to stop pursuing a cure and your doctor believes that you're within the last few months of life, you can transition to hospice care.

Sadly, more Americans die from heart disease than any other condition, including cancer.  All too often, people with advanced cardiovascular diseases, including heart disease, heart failure and stroke, and their families are not made aware of how hospice and palliative care provides holistic support to relieve symptoms and improve quality of life.   

Unity is here to improve the quality of life for you and your loved ones facing advanced cardiovascular disease with our innovative, Advanced Cardiac Care Program, established nationally in collaboration with the American Heart Association (AHA) and National Partnership for Healthcare and Hospice Innovation (NPHI). Together, we’ll prevent emergency room and hospital visits, by providing the care, support and information necessary to manage symptoms in the comfort of your home.