Whole-person care
Start with the person.
A person has a body, a history, a family, a job, and goals. Whole-person care includes all of that along with the diagnosis.
Everyone should understand what matters, what needs attention, and who can help.
Ask what matters to this person
Start with the person’s own goals. They may want less pain. They may want an easier day, a way back to work, or more time with family. Some want help living with what they do not know yet.
Ask which worries they want to talk about. Beliefs, meaning, and faith belong in the talk when the person wants them there.
Look at the whole picture
These five areas help a team listen. Use them as prompts when you talk with your team.
What matters most
People and
belonging
Home, work,
and self
Meaning and
values
Body and
daily life
What matters most
Illness can change what a person believes, hopes for, or lives for. It can also make those things clearer. Some people call this the spiritual part of life. Others call it faith, meaning, or what matters most.
Care can make room for it. The idea has a long history. Dame Cicely Saunders started the modern hospice movement. In the nineteen sixties she taught that pain has physical, emotional, social, and spiritual parts. Care teams still learn from her today.
A team needs to ask, listen, and know who can help. A chaplain, a counselor, or a trusted person in the community may each have a part.
Let each person on the team do their part
Different people bring different skills. A doctor, a counselor, a nurse, a therapist, a pharmacist, a chaplain, or a community helper may each know part of the person’s situation.
A team should be able to say what each person adds. One shared goal ties the work together. Each person still keeps the duties of their own role.
A pain clinic, a hospice team, and a family doctor’s office each do some of this work.
Plan the follow-up
A referral starts a connection. The team still needs to know what happened next.
Name who will follow up. Decide how big changes will be shared. Agree on who steps in when a need is bigger than the team. Then explain those plans to the person getting care.
For patients and families
Your daily life is part of your care. You may want help with more than one symptom. Sleep, work, family, worry, and what gives your life meaning may all matter.
Start with what you most want your team to understand. You do not need every answer. You do not have to share anything you are not ready to share.
Questions you can bring to your care team:
Choose what matters most today. Before a visit, try writing one sentence: “The thing I most want help with is ______.” Bring that note with you.
This website gives general education. It does not check your health or set up your care. Ask your own care team about your plan and follow-up.
Support the care you want to give
This kind of care takes time and people. The way a practice is staffed, talks, and gets paid should all serve the same purpose.
Kedge, a separate company, helps practices work through the specific rules for their situation.
Educational only. Not legal, billing, coding, clinical, or compliance advice. Do not submit patient or claim information through public website forms.