palliate

Palliative care :
to prevent and relieve suffering and to improve quality of life for people facing serious, complepal·li·ate (pl-t)
tr.v. pal·li·at·ed, pal·li·at·ing, pal·li·ates
1. To make (an offense or crime) seem less serious; extenuate.
2. To make less severe or intense; mitigate: tried unsuccessfully to palliate the widespread discontent.
3. To relieve the symptoms of a disease or disorder.
[Middle English palliaten, from Late Latin pallire, pallit-, to cloak, palliate, from Latin pallium, cloak.]
palli·ation n.
palli·ator n.
Synonyms: palliate, extenuate, gloss1, gloze, whitewash
These verbs mean to cause a fault or offense to seem less grave or less reprehensible: palliate a crime; couldn't extenuate the malfeasance; glossing over an unethical transaction; glozing sins and iniquities; whitewashed official complicity in political extortion. See Also Synonyms at relieve.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.x illness.

IN OTHER WORDS
ameliorate, amend, improve, meliorate, mitigate, better - to make better