Kendall, M.

We describe the findings of a qualitative longitudinal interview study of a group of initially community-dwelling frail older people, and their informal and formal carers. We used a narrative approach to explore the role that narrative may have for people living with frailty. This has been less explored comparative to the experiences of those living with chronic illness. The frail older people told stories of their experiences that revealed three distinct shapes or typologies.

Background: Services for people with heart failure are under-developed. The perspectives of patients, their informal and professional carers should inform development of service models.

Aim: To describes how patients and carers view health and social care in the last year of life.

Patient and family perspectives are vital in conceptualising quality of life in the dying (1). The principles of a 'good death' have been established (2,3), and multidimensional frameworks exist for understanding and evaluating end-of-life care (4). However, care often falls short of the ideal, or is offered late. To examine why, we set out to understand the holistic needs of 40 patients dying from lung cancer or cardiac failure and their carers, and to explore to what degree these needs were identified and addressed by service providers (5).