Palliative Care at Porter Medical Center, Middlebury, VT
Under the leadership of Dr. Diana Barnard, the Palliative Care Team at Porter Medical Center offers a comprehensive approach to patient care, incorporating clinical excellence and specialized treatments with the compassion that comes through personalized care.
Our Palliative Care Team is staffed by providers who are specially trained to support the physical and psychological needs of patients and families facing the complex challenges of life-threatening or chronic illness.
The Role of Palliative Medicine
The Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC) defines it as “specialized medical care for people with serious illnesses. It focuses on providing patients with relief from the symptoms, pain, and stress of a serious illness – whatever the diagnosis. The goal is to improve quality of life for both the patient and the family.”
At Porter Medical Center, we help keep patients as comfortable and active as possible by aggressively treating pain and symptoms. Our goal is to help our patients remain independent and live fully. We work with our patients throughout their hospital stay.
Our consultants also support patients and families as they navigate the medical system, helping with difficult decisions about care and treatments; providing answers and emotional support; and identifying services to support them after they leave the hospital.
Comprehensive and Collaborative Palliative Medicine
The Palliative Care Team works collaboratively with social workers, case managers, palliative support volunteers, and the pastoral care program, as well as community health agencies throughout Vermont and our region.
Facing the challenges of life-threatening or chronic illness, patients and their families can benefit from the sensitive, thoughtful care that our Palliative Care program provides.
Locations for Palliative Care
- Helen Porter Rehabilitation & Nursing is an attractive, secure residence where loved ones are assured of skilled nursing care and assistance with daily living and where privacy is honored and individuality respected.
- Respite & Hospice Care Services
- Addison County Respite Care Hospice (ARCH) for End-of-Life Care located at Helen Porter. There are two rooms in the main area and one in the memory care unit. These rooms were renovated in the summer of 2018.
- Arch Estuary Suite The Estuary is a palliative care suite inside the main hospital building that dispenses comfort care to dying patients and some basic amenities to their loved ones. The suite is a collaboration between Porter and Addison Respite Care Home Ltd.