You are here

  1. Home
  2. Palliative care

Palliative care

Palliative and end of life care toolkit

This toolkit provides links to a range of resources to support GP practices and health professionals in ensuring patients nearing the end of life, and those close to them, receive the highest quality of care and support. It includes tools, guidance, current best practice policy, and legislation for healthcare professionals. It also provides links to training resources to help with continuing professional development and audit tools to evaluate practice. A section providing information for patients, informal carers, and those close to someone nearing the end of life is also included.

Thu, 07/20/2017 - 15:23

How can informal caregivers in cancer and palliative care be supported? An updated systematic literature review of interventions and their effectiveness

Introduction: Informal caregivers needs in cancer/advanced disease are largely unmet. The science of carer intervention evaluation is methodologically challenging, and the evidence historically weak.

Objective: This systematic review updates an earlier effectiveness review to determine both the effectiveness of subsequently published intervention studies, and the current state of science.

Thu, 07/20/2017 - 15:23

A terminal diagnosis: the carers' perspective

This qualitative study explored the views of spouse carers in relation to the emotional impact of caring for a partner with a chronic or terminal illness. The study population consisted of nine full-time spouse carers, recruited using a snowball sampling strategy.

Thu, 07/20/2017 - 15:22

Listening to and learning from the family carer's story: an innovative approach in interprofessional education

Meeting family carers who recount their experiences of being on the receiving end of health and social care provides a 'real life' context in which undergraduate students from different professions can explore together and learn about interprofessional care and teamwork. This paper draws on data from a three-month in-depth evaluation of palliative care workshops in which medical, nursing, social work and rehabilitation therapy students interview family carers who are caring for someone with a terminal illness or who have recently been bereaved.

Thu, 07/20/2017 - 15:22

Out-of-hours palliative care: a qualitative study of cancer patients, carers and professionals

Background: New out-of-hours healthcare services in the UK are intended to offer simple, convenient access and effective triage. They may be unsatisfactory for patients with complex needs, where continuity of care is important.

Aim: To explore the experiences and perceptions of out-of-hours care of patients with advanced cancer, and with their informal and professional carers.

Design of study: Qualitative, community-based study using in-depth interviews, focus groups and telephone interviews.

Thu, 07/20/2017 - 15:22

Family Caregivers, Their Needs, and Home-based Palliative Cancer Services

The focus of this four-stage, longitudinal, qualitative, and quantitative study was to explore, from the caregivers perspective, the impact of caring for a person with a diagnosis of terminal cancer, in order to improve the planning and coordination of home-based hospice services in Australia. Caregivers identified five primary-care needs relating to lack of information and ineffective communication with health professionals, inadequate emotional support, the need for assistance with physical care and household tasks, support for caregiver health and social wellbeing, and financial issues.

Thu, 07/20/2017 - 15:22

Case management in primary palliative care is associated more strongly with organisational than with patient characteristics: results from a cross-sectional prospective study

Background: Case managers have been introduced in Dutch primary palliative care; these are nurses with expertise in palliative care who offer support to patients and informal carers in addition to the care provided by the general practitioner and home care nurses. This study aims to describe support and investigate what characteristics of patients and the organizational setting are related to the number of contacts and to the number of times topics are discussed between the case manager and patients and/or informal carers.

Thu, 07/20/2017 - 15:21

Informal care and home-based palliative care: the health-related quality of life of carers

Health is an important factor in the capacity of family and friends (informal carers) to continue providing care for palliative care patients at home. This study investigates associations between the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of current informal carers and characteristics of the carers and their caregiving situation, in a sample of Australian carers of palliative care patients. The cross-sectional study used the Short Form-36 Health Survey to measure HRQOL. It found carers to have better physical health and worse mental health than the general population.

Thu, 07/20/2017 - 15:21

Supporting family carers providing end-of-life home care: a qualitative study on the impact of a hospice at home service

Aims and objectives: To explore bereaved family carers' perceptions and experiences of a hospice at home service.

Thu, 07/20/2017 - 15:21

Palliative care provided by GPs: the carer's viewpoint

As most terminal and palliative care is in the community, general practitioners (GPs) have an important role to play. This study presents bereaved carers' views of the palliative care provided by GPs. It suggests that symptom control may not be optimal.

Thu, 07/20/2017 - 15:21

Page 30 of 36