Hospices and care homes—similarities and differences in relation to palliative care (original) (raw)
Related papers
Palliative care in long-term care: a system in change
International Journal of Older People Nursing, 2006
The provision of palliative care for older people within the next decade will need to be substantially different to that provided today. In long term care settings the achievement of quality palliative care will require attention to all levels of the health and social care system, in both its formal and informal manifestations. We suggest that long-term care facilities will become the hospices of the future, caring for older people with chronic conditions with a long trajectory to death, the most common being dementia. We see this progression as inevitable and appropriate if the right support is provided. We discuss the impact that transferability and sustainability has had on the present provision of palliative care for older people and how that may affect the future. Four forces which are important factors in public policy; leadership, a culture that supports learning throughout the care process, an emphasis on effective team development and the use of information technologies for quality activities are used as a framework for our vision of social planning. We then go on to discuss the impact of costs, workforce, service planning and public awareness as three vital areas where progress needs to be carefully tackled. We suggest some likely poor outcomes if this planning does not occur, but indicate that if planning and implementation is effective then services can provide the kind of care the baby boomer generation seeks.
Journal of Clinical Nursing, 2009
The demographic profile of Western industrialised societies in the 21st century reflects an increasing ageing population. For example, it is projected that by 2026, 20% of the population of Canada will be over 65; already currently 75% of Canadian deaths occur in 'seniors' (Carstairs 2005, Katz 2008). Similarly in the UK, there are almost as many people over 65 as there are under 16 years of age (Office of National Statistics 2004, population statistics census). Thus dying in old age is now the norm in developed Western societies (Katz 2008). To respond to these huge demographic demands, changes in policy and practice globally have shifted the emphasis from providing good-quality palliative care to those people with cancer and who meet the criteria for care, onto the needs of previously 'disadvantaged' dying people, of whom older people comprise the largest group. There is currently much discussion around the palliative care needs of older people (Gott 2008), and this is placing care homes in the spotlight as a significant place of care and death at the end of life. Only in recent years has research in the USA, Canada, Australia and the UK specifically investigated the quality of dying and management of death in carehome settings (e.g.
Palliative Care & Medicine Dying to Know; Learning to Care
In writing this, Marie Curie could have been referring specifically to the care of people at the end of life. Since Victorian times death has become more hidden, often moved out of the view of most of the public and some of the professions. Cicely Saunders, the founder of the modern hospice movement was aware of this aspect of modern life and medicine when she created a professional discipline whose hallmark has been the combination of scientific understanding with personal concern. Readers of her work will know well that she identifies one of the key moments of her journey as her meeting and subsequent relationship with David Tasma, a 40 year old Jewish man who had survived World War II and the Warsaw ghetto. He spoke with her often about his life, his sufferings and what he wanted from his care-givers "I only want what is in your mind and in your heart" he told her, an oft quoted comment that addresses both the cognitive and interpersonal aspects of palliative care. Saun...
The Overlap Between Geriatric Medicine and Palliative Care: A Scoping Literature Review
Journal of Applied Gerontology
With an increasing aging population worldwide, there is a growing need for both palliative care and geriatric medicine. It is presumed in medical literature that both specialties share similar goals about patient care and could collaborate. To inform future service development, the objective of this review was to identify what is currently empirically known about overlapping working practices. This article provides a scoping literature review on the relationship between geriatric medicine and palliative care within the United Kingdom. The review encompassed literature written between 1997 and 2019 accessed via Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed, and Google Scholar. Three themes were identified: (a) unclear boundaries between specialties, (b) communication within and between specialisms, and (c) ambiguity of how older people fit in the current health care system. We suggest that more empirical research is conducted about the overlap between palliative care and geriatric medicine to under...
Guest editorial:palliative care matters, now more than ever
2020
Palliative care matters, now more than ever This special issue now seems uncannily prescient in view of the devastating impact of COVID-19 on people with advanced dementia or severe frailty, particularly in care homes. The pandemic has heightened awareness of the possibility of a sudden and rapid transition from relative health to a palliative or end of life stage. This has opened up conversations about the potential burden from intensive treatments that are likely to be futile and the benefits of advance care planning. The collection of papers will be of interest to readers involved in planning, commissioning or delivering palliative and end of life care services for our most vulnerable citizens at this time, whether at home or in a hospital, care home or hospice.