Resources for People with Advanced Illness

Individuals with an advanced illness have one or more conditions that have become serious enough that general health and function decline, and treatments begin to lose their effectiveness. This decline tends to be progressive and continues to the end of life. As a result, care for people with advanced illness requires effective patient-clinician communication about quality of life, goals of care, and advance directives, along with access to palliative care and hospice care that is well coordinated with other medical care, behavioral health support, and personal care.