Changing a mobile unit's name from Palliative Care to Supportive Care

In France, certain mobile palliative care units have changed their name, calling themselves mobile supportive care units. The long history of admissions to supportive care wards, where the care activity is very similar to that proposed by the mobile units, would suggest that the amalgam between supportive care and palliative care does not arise from cancerology. For us, it is the advocates of the palliative care movement themselves who are dodging the term ''palliative'' care. It is feared that using the term ''palliative care'' in the name of a mobile unit would have a negative effect on functional efficacy because of the negative representations attached to the term ''palliative care'' and its proximity to death.Practitioners worry about preserving their unit's efficacy, even though their initial mission, like regular supportive care wards, is to promote within the medical community a more anthropological approach to suffering and death. (C) 2009 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.