Due to low public awareness and consistent misconceptions, how you frame palliative care and its benefits is vitally important. Marketing, supported by sound messaging, helps patients, families, referral sources, and service partners understand the work that you do. Palliative care is about quality of life. When done well, proper messaging and marketing can clarify this and motivate patients, families, and clinicians to take advantage of it.

Use the MOTIVATE toolkit to refine your program’s marketing strategy, and your messaging.

What’s in the Toolkit

Defining and discussing palliative care correctly is the key to clarifying its benefits for both public and provider audiences.

About Palliative Care

Definition of palliative care and how it improves quality of life for patients living with a serious illness, and their families.

Messaging Palliative Care

User-tested language on how to talk about what palliative care is and why it's needed.

Palliative Care: Do and Don't Say

A quick and easy reference for what to say - and what not to say - when communicating about palliative care.

Let’s Stay on Message with Palliative Care

A new analysis shows we’re still mixing messages for palliative care.

Reframing Palliative Care: Messages Matter

Presentation on key messaging considerations for palliative care professionals and advocates.

More on Messaging: Getting the Care to the Patients

Messaging is critical to the field of Palliative Care. Clarity and consistency are key. Watch this webinar recording for a deep dive into the most frequently asked questions about how to use palliative care messaging.

CAPC Playlist: The Palliative Care Message

Videos from CAPC's YouTube channel about messaging palliative care.

Palliative Care Photography Guidelines

Use this document as a guide for choosing appropriate photos when communicating about palliative care.

Serious Illness Messaging Toolkit

Online toolkit for evidence-based messaging around caring for people living with serious illness. This toolkit was created to help clinicians and organizations improve their messaging to the public so that more people can benefit from services like palliative care.

CAPC Key Messages re: COVID-19

Messages and supporting points that palliative care professionals can use with the public and press to explain the role of palliative care in COVID-19.

Palliative Care Patients Tell Their Stories

View the stories of people living with a serious illness and benefiting from palliative care.

CAPC helps you make the case for the value of palliative care with organization leaders, colleagues, and community partners.

Palliative Care Graphic

This graphic illustrates that palliative care is appropriate at any point in a serious illness and is based on need, not prognosis. The goal is to improve quality of life.

Demonstrating Value to Stakeholders

Tools to make the case for palliative care resources and financial partnerships, including the palliative care evidence base and downloadable tools for presenting the case.

The Case for Hospital Palliative Care

This publication includes key messages for health system leaders about the value of hospital palliative care, applicable across settings.

The Case for Community-Based Palliative Care

The majority of people with serious illness are neither dying nor hospitalized. So, palliative care needs to be available in all settings outside hospitals—in medical offices and clinics, in post-acute and long-term care facilities, and in patient homes. This publication includes key data on the value of community palliative care, program profiles, and a case example to use with leadership.

Learn from CAPC's extensive national public opinion research on palliative care.

BRIEFING: Key Findings on the Perceptions of Palliative Care

Insights from qualitative and quantitative research that tracked public and physician awareness, perceptions, attitudes, and interest in palliative care and how they have shifted over time. Watch the recording and download the slides.

SLIDES: Key Findings on the Perceptions of Palliative Care

Slides from August 8, 2019 briefing on insights from qualitative and quantitative research that tracked public and physician awareness, perceptions, attitudes, and interest in palliative care and how they have shifted over time.

SLIDES: Public Opinion Research Key Findings 2011

In 2011, CAPC engaged the polling firm Public Opinion Strategies (POS), to conduct extensive national audience research on palliative care among U.S. adults. This national survey resulted in the only evidence-based definition of palliative care.

Strategically marketing the palliative care program to various audiences is critical to success.

CAPC Tutorial: Marketing for Palliative Care Programs
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Guidance on increasing palliative care referrals through internal marketing.

Eight Questions: Developing Effective Communications
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These eight questions will help palliative care teams across settings get the information they need to form the basis of the marketing plan, including strong communications with their target audience.

CAPC Guide to Social Media
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Best practices for developing an effective and impactful social media strategy.

Learn to effectively convey the value of palliative care to both the public and referral sources.

Consult Etiquette: Communicating with Referring Providers

Guidance for palliative care teams to build collaborative relationships with referrers.

Palliative Care Progress Note
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An effective progress note based on the core domains of palliative care is one of your best marketing tools. There's no better way to effectively show referral sources what palliative care can do. Sample document shared by Carle Foundation Hospital, 2017.

Knowing how to talk to the press is critical to your image and reputation.

CAPC Guide to Working with the Media
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A primer for palliative care professionals, this guide includes tips and suggestions for working with the media, to ensure proper messaging.

Talking to the Press about Palliative Care

Palliative care is an often-misunderstood term. It is, therefore, critical that everyone talking about palliative care to the media is fully aware of how to define it and how to discuss it correctly. In this video, clinicians role play interviews with a reporter and demonstrate how to use pivots and bridges to redirect a conversation when necessary. While this video focuses on being interviewed by the press, the lessons should be equally applied to any conversation about palliative care that veers off track.

Access clear, simple patient and family information and materials on palliative care.

GetPalliativeCare.org

Information for patients and families about palliative care.

CAPC Handout for Patients and Families

Available on GetPalliativeCare.org, this handout contains patient and family-focused frequently asked questions about palliative care.

CAPC Handout for Patients and Families, Spanish (Folleto Informativo para Pacientes y Familias)

Spanish version of CAPC's handout containing patient and family-focused frequently asked questions about palliative care. Available on GetPalliativeCare.org. (Informacion sobre cuidados paliativos con preguntas y respuestas para pacientes y sus familias. Disponible en GetPalliativeCare.org.)

Customizable CAPC Handout for Patients and Families

This handout contains patient and family-focused frequently asked questions about palliative care. You can customize this version of the handout to include contact information for your palliative care program and your organization's logo. In this zip file you will find an InDesign version for programs with access to a graphic designer, and a Microsoft Word version for those who don't.

GetPalliativeCare YouTube Channel

Videos about what palliative care is and how it can benefit people living with a serious illness, and their families.

Template Palliative Care Program Brochure Text for Patients and Families

Customize this template to create a program brochure that describes your services to patients and families.

Tools to make the case for palliative care resources and financial partnerships, including the palliative care evidence base and downloadable tools for presenting the case. Includes 27 resources.
Toolkit to support strategic planning, team leadership, and professional development for the palliative care leader. Includes 30 resources.
Strategic planning for program growth, including making the case, demonstrating value, and strengthening relationships with partners. Includes 22 resources.

See all 47 Toolkits

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