Abstracts

Presents various abstracts concerning palliative care. Views of terminally ill patients on the needs of their informal carers; Case series on peritoneal mesothelioma; Clonazepam for pain management in advance cancer; Symptoms of chronic heart failure.

Introduction and practice change: This project utilisied co-production methodology to enable health and social care practitioners, older people and their informal carers to work together to codesign an integrated care pathway from hospital to home. Aim and theory of change: The project aimed to improve the experience of older people transitioning from hospital to home. To achieve this aim the group co-designed a two-pronged service intervention: i. an admissions coordinator; and ii. discharge at home. Timeline: This has been a 20-month project, initiated in July 2013.

Introduction and description of care: The management of non-healing wounds in Europe has gone through a dramatic shift in the location of service delivery from hospital towards home care settings. As a consequence more wounds with complex pathological pictures due to untreated patient co-morbidities are treated at home.

Hull Churches Home from Hospital Service (HCHfH) has been at the forefront of bringing assistive technology into the homes of the elderly with chronic illness’ through Telehealth projects since 2008.

Future of health in EU faces the triple challenges of ageing, fiscal restriction and inclusion. In the UK the number of aged people will increase to 6.6 million in the next 25 years. In Scotland, the group people 74+ are projected to increase most dramatically by 82% by 2035. That statistics show every day the needs of older people are growing and an increasing number of carers are required. Now the number of carers are around 10% of population of the UK. In next 25 years the population of carers will rise to 9 million.

Kirklees Council has taken up the strategic challenge to develop a Self-Care Hub, making the best use of technology to support local citizens living with a variety of long-term health conditions (LTCs). With increasing pressure on budgets and time, some service users with a LTC may see professionals for as little as an hour a year. It is therefore important to facilitate more self-care by service users.