Fr. Adrian and Chaplain Sarah define the meaning and purpose of palliative care.

Fr. Adrian and Chaplain Sarah continue their conversation about palliative care and the role of the chaplain.

The post Africa Small Grants programme: Palliative Care Development in Africa (Due by 31 Oct) was curated by information for practice.

Palliative care is becoming an essential component of healthcare, but there is insufficient research on how integration across different levels of care (micro, meso, and macro) is realized in practice. Without… Read the full article ›

The post Addressing integration in the organization of palliative care in belgium: a multilevel ecosystems approach using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method was curated by information for practice.

Supporting a loved one as they near the end of their life can be confronting. Palliative care is there to help but such services are not equally accessible to all Australians, particularly those in rural areas.

Supporting a loved one as they near the end of their life can be confronting. Palliative care is there to help but such services are not equally accessible to all Australians, particularly those in rural areas.

Serving Monterey, San Benito, Santa Cruz, and South Santa Clara counties, VNA & Hospice accepts Medicare, Medi-Cal, and most private insurances, ensuring that quality care is accessible to all.

Statement Highlights: Palliative medication management focuses on providing relief from symptoms and enhancing quality of life for people with cardiovascular disease throughout the various stages of the disease. Decisions about initiating, adjusting...

Palliative care pertains to the holistic multidimensional concept of "patient-centred" care. It is an interprofessional specialty, primarily aiming to improve quality of care for cancer patients and their families, from the time of diagnosis of malignant disease, over the continuum of cancer care, and extending after the patient's death to the period of bereavement to support the patient's family. There are various complex and frequently unmet needs of lung cancer patients and their families/caregivers, not only physical but also psychological, social, spiritual and cultural. Systematic monitoring of patients’ symptoms using validated questionnaires and patient-reported outcomes (PROs), on a regular basis, is highly encouraged and recommended in recent guidelines on the role of PRO measures in the continuum of cancer clinical care. It improves patient–physician communication, physician awareness of symptoms, symptom control, patient satisfaction, health-related quality of life and cost-effectiveness. This implies that all treating physicians should improve their skills in communication with lung cancer patients/relatives and become more familiar with this multidimensional assessment, repeatedly screening patients for palliative care needs. Therefore, they should receive education and training to develop palliative care knowledge, skills and attitudes. This review is dedicated to lung cancer palliative care essentials that should be within the competences of treating physicians, i.e. pneumologists/thoracic oncologists.

The sector is emerging as a viable option for students looking for careers in healthcare.

New Brunswick's chief medical officer of health, said the province will introduce a new policy that's independent of the phase two recovery stage announced Friday.

Move-in Assistance, Healing Touch and Polarity Therapies are Now Offered

Maggots were found in the mouth of a patient with advanced dementia by visiting family members, the Royal Commission into Aged Care sitting in WA has been told.

With WA moving closer to legalising voluntary assisted dying, the debate is shining a light on the desperate need for better palliative care, particularly in regional areas.

In regional Victoria, palliative care patients are waiting hours and sometimes days for much-needed medications to help with pain and quality of life.

The NSW Government allocates $3 million to fund nine new palliative care specialists in health districts across regional NSW.

Invitation Only Research Event

Event participants

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization 

(JAMA Network) The considerations and challenges affecting the palliative care specialty and delivery of palliative care in the COVID-19 era, as well as potential solutions, are discussed in this Viewpoint.

Scott Murray, professor of primary palliative care at the University of Edinburgh, has written, and talked in this podcast before, about the benefits of early palliative care - and today he’s back to explain how illness trajectory, and the pattern of decline at the end of life, affects 4 main areas of wellness - physical, social, psychological and...

Pediatric palliative care (PC) can be beneficial to children with life-threatening conditions and their families by providing symptom management and control, sibling support, bereavement services, spiritual guidance, support in decision-making about limiting burdensome medical interventions, and advance directives.

Little is known about actual receipt of PC by dying children. This study compares characteristics of dying children by receipt of PC and highlights underserved patient groups who could be targeted to improve access. (Read the full article)

Over the past 10 years, children’s hospitals increasingly have established pediatric palliative care programs, but little is known about the prevalence of these programs or their geographic distribution, range of services offered, staff composition, or funding.

Among the 162 hospitals that responded to this survey (71.7% response rate), 69% have a pediatric palliative care program, with substantial variation across programs in terms of how they are staffed and funded and what services they provide. (Read the full article)

Palliative care is an increasingly important element of pediatric care for children with noncurable, terminal conditions. Freestanding hospices represent one model of care provision; however, little research on this approach has been conducted.

This report documents the experience of North America’s first freestanding hospice over 15 years to better understand the characteristics of children and families enrolled and to establish baseline information for future studies and program planning. (Read the full article)

Pediatric palliative care (PPC) improves the quality of life for children with life-limiting illness and their families. The association between PPC and health care costs is unclear and has not been studied over time.

PPC recipients were more medically complex. Receipt of PPC was associated with lower costs when death was near but with greater costs among survivors. When controlling for medical complexity, costs did not differ significantly according to receipt of PPC. (Read the full article)

To the Editor—The North Carolina Medical Board and North Carolina Medical Society have concerns regarding the Correspondence To the Editor in the March/April 2019 issue of the North Carolina Medical Journal titled, "Aid in Dying in North Carolina" [1]. Although we recognize the beliefs shared by the individual authors were not intended to be conclusive guidance regarding the status of aid in dying (AID) in North Carolina, we feel compelled to respond with a few clarifying notes.

The authors of the correspondence opine: "In light of the legal analysis of North Carolina law, we feel confident that AID can be provided to patients who request it" and that "physicians can provide AID ... without risk of a viable criminal or disciplinary action" [1].

In all matters of medical practice, including end-of-life matters, physicians and physician assistants must meet the standards of acceptable and prevailing medical practice and the ethics of the medical profession. If the Medical Board receives a complaint related to AID, it will evaluate the complaint and determine, utilizing expert consultants, whether the physician engaged in unprofessional conduct as defined by the North Carolina Medical Practice Act.

Further, disagreement exists within the medical community regarding the role of clinicians in medical AID. In one national survey, there was no consensus about the acceptability of AID among physicians and other health care professionals caring for older adults [2]. Respondents also expressed concerns about AID applied to vulnerable populations, including those with low health literacy, low English proficiency, disability, dependency,...

Background:

The number of medical undergraduate and postgraduate students completing palliative care clinical rotations in Canadian medical schools is currently unknown. The aim of this study was to assess the proportion of Canadian medical trainees completing clinical rotations in palliative care and to determine whether changes took place between 2008 and 2018.

The United States has partially intervened against defendants in two whistleblower lawsuits in the Federal District Court for the District of Colorado alleging Evercare Hospice and Palliative Care submitted false claims for the Medicare hospice benefit.

Exclusive: Pharmacy staff in care homes are being redeployed to cover other roles during the COVID-19 pandemic, even though demands on care homes are increasing rapidly, The Pharmaceutical Journal has learnt.

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New study describes how palliative care needs to adapt to an emergency style to help make the best decisions and support families. The findings of the

Kerala's palliative care movement shows health services can go well beyond the biomedical model of health and be seen as an affirmative act of living with dignity. Freny Manecksha reports.

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