%0 Journal Article %T Palliative care %A M£¿nica Estuque Garcia de Queiroz %J Cadernos de Terapia Ocupacional %D 2012 %I Universidade Federal de S?o Carlos %X According to the World Health Organization (WHO), palliative care can be defined as active and totalcare measures that improve the life quality of patients with terminal diseases and their family/relatives, throughprevention and suffering relieve by means of early identification, adequate evaluation, and treatment of painand other physical, psychosocial and spiritual problems. This article deals with the attention of the occupationaltherapist in palliative care, as from the definition of this philosophy and its principles. The occupational therapist¡¯spractice is described through the author¡¯s theoretical and practical references. In palliative care, occupationaltherapy helps the patient and caregiver to deal with the difficulties mentioned and observed in order to achievegreater comfort, dignity and quality of life in the hospital or at home, in order to promote the maximum levelof independence and/or occupational performance with autonomy with the aim to improve the quality of life,despite the functional loss, cognitive, emotional and social. %K Occupational Therapy %K Palliative Care %K Hospitalization. %U http://dx.doi.org/10.4322/cto.2012.021