This year more than 24,000 Coloradans will hear the dreaded words, “You have cancer.” Thousands of individuals and families will cope with not only the physical symptoms of cancer, but will likely ride an emotional roller coaster as well. How is it possible to provide for and treat all of these symptoms simultaneously and successfully? One answer is palliative care.

Recently, the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN) hosted its annual Colorado Policy Breakfast with a focus this year on palliative care, a patient-centered, coordinated care regimen that addresses both the physical and emotional symptoms that come with cancer and many other chronic illnesses.

The benefits of this type of care include :

• Addressing common and often debilitating physical symptoms such as nausea, pain, fatigue and shortness of breath as well as the psychological symptoms such as depression and anxiety.

• Coordinating discharge from the hospital so that patients and their families are certain the proper medicines are going home and that follow up care is properly scheduled.

• Enhancing communication between physicians ensuring that test results are available and important information is shared in a timely fashion.

Palliative care teams focus on making sure that the whole person is treated, not just the disease. For anyone facing a chronic disease, palliative care can be life changing. Yet, so few patients are aware this type of care may be available to them. Studies indicate that most American adults know nothing about palliative care. In an ACS CAN and Center to Advance Palliative Care survey, 70 percent of participants reported they were “not at all knowledgeable” about the topic. Additionally, many individuals who have heard of palliative care believe it is used only when a patient is dying, when curative treatments are no longer an option. This simply isn’t true.

Most importantly, for palliative care to be effective, patients must not only know it exists, but have access to it. At the present time, only 54 percent of public hospitals and fewer than 40 percent of community hospitals provide their patients access to palliative care. In a day and age when such effective pain relief and stress management is possible, these numbers are absolutely unacceptable.

But, this can change. Congress has a chance to improve patient quality of life through the Palliative Care and Hospice Education and Training Act or H.R.3119 introduced in early July. Colorado representatives have an opportunity to sign onto this bill, which would increase access to this type of care by creating a nationwide fleet of trained palliative care professionals and a system that identifies patients who will benefit from palliative care and a way to connect them to resources.

The tools are there, the time is right. Let’s make sure our friends and relatives diagnosed with cancer and other chronic, life-threatening diseases are given the best chance to survive and thrive. Urge your congressional representative to support palliative care so that we can provide dedicated health care professionals the tools they need to support and partner with patients and their families during the journey through cancer treatment.

R.J. Ours is the director of government relations for the Colorado American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, which works to encourage elected officials and candidates to make cancer a top national priority.