Palliative care is the active total care of patients with incurable diseases. Palliative care responds to physical, psychological, social and spiritual needs of the patients and their families and if necessary, extends support to the family in bereavement. It is patient centred, and not disease-focused. According to the World Health Organization, "palliative care is an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing problems associated with life-threatening illness, through the prevention and relief of suffering by means of early identification and assessment and treatment of pain and other problems, physical, psychosocial and spiritual”. Palliative care provides relief from pain and other distressing symptoms and offers a support system to help patients live as actively as possible until death. Palliative care also offers support to help the family cope with the patient's illness and in bereavement.

• With the rapid ageing of the Indian population the highest number of patients needing palliative care in the future will be from among the terminally ill elderly.
• Palliative care relieves suffering in patients with incurable diseases. The physical, psychosocial and spiritual support from palliative care can dramatically improve the quality of life of people with advanced chronic diseases and their families. the lack of access to palliative care impacts individuals, families and communities in multiple ways.
• Most patients requiring palliative care may get drawn to inappropriate, futile and expensive treatments leading to further harm to them, including financial liabilities.
• Lack of counselling and proper training of patients and their care givers results in poor quality of life of the patients.
• Lack of specific palliative care facilities leads to use of scarce resources meant for curative therapy and also results in blockage of hospital beds.

Kerala Model