Palliative Care

What is Palliative Care?

Palliative care - or supportive care - means to relieve the physical, emotional and spiritual distress caused by disease. This can be at any stage of a disease. It may mean treating the symptoms of pain and emotional distress caused by a debilitating rheumatoid arthritis. It may mean giving medication for anxiety and difficulty breathing to a patient who is in the final stages of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. It may mean giving ongoing effective pain medication for a patient in the last stages of cancer. It also may mean arranging for the patient's pastor, or pastoral care, to visit the patient who is expressing the fear of dying. OSF St. Francis Hospital & Medical Group offers supportive care to patients and their families in all areas of the hospital.

Contact Information

For more information on palliative care and social services at OSF St. Francis Hospital & Medical Group, please feel free to contact the following people:

• Kate LaBeau, RN
  Phone: (906) 786-5707, x5186


• Sandy Guenette, registered social worker
  Phone: (906) 786-5707, x5529


• Liz Fitzharris, registered social worker
  Phone: (906) 786-5707, x5528