Journal of palliative medicine
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Family and friend caregivers play critical roles in ensuring that persons with serious illness receive high-quality care, and their responsibilities often increase as patients transition from receiving solely curative-focused care to primarily palliative-focused care. Integrating family caregivers into the health care team and supporting them in their role has significant benefits for family caregivers, patients, health care systems, communities, and society. ⋯ Here, we contend that providing comprehensive palliative care includes addressing the needs of family caregivers and provide ten tips and practical guidance to assist palliative care clinicians to support family caregivers. Engaging family caregivers as partners in care will ultimately allow palliative care clinicians to deliver the highest quality patient care and ensure the best possible outcomes for families facing serious illnesses.