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Starting the conversation about spiritual needs and being with a person in spiritual distress can be difficult for staff and volunteers. Expressing spiritual distress is a challenge for patients and their loved ones, as knowing where to begin and how to put feelings into words can feel impossible.
The St Barnabas Hospice Spiritual Wellbeing Boxes have been developed to make vital interaction between patients, their loved ones, our staff and volunteers a little easier.
Dementia is a life-limiting condition that is largely a disease of ageing. However, older people in general, and older people with dementia in particular, have not always had equal access to effective palliative and end of life care. As a result, people with dementia at the end of life often receive aggressive and burdensome interventions, or inadequate assessment and management of their symptoms. Patterns in how people with dementia experience and present symptoms as they near the end of life can indicate when the goals of care should change and a palliative approach should be adopted. To read the full article, log in using your NHS Athens
Background: Most studies on euthanasia fail to explain the intentions of health professionals when faced with performing euthanasia and are atheoretical. To read the full article, log in using your NHS Athens
Music therapy during palliative and end-of-life care is well established and positive benefits for patients have been reported.
Aim: Assess the effectiveness of music therapy versus standard care alone or standard care in combination with other therapies for improving psychological, physiological and social outcomes among adult patients in any palliative care setting.
To read the full article, log in using your NHS OpenAthens details
Adult social care to be assessed on end-of-life care after a CQC review finds inequality in the care different groups of people receive in their final days
A national review by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) has found that people from certain groups in society are experiencing poorer quality care at the end of their lives than others because providers and commissioners do not always understand or fully consider their specific needs.
This article, the second of two, provides healthcare practitioners with an overview of best practice in palliative and end-of-life care, including nutrition, hydration, oral hygiene and pain management. To read the full article, log in using your NHS OpenAthens details
The Department of Health have published a response to an independent review on choice in end of life care.
It details the six commitments that the government has made to the public to end variation in end of life care across the health system by 2020
The author reflects on the results of the National Survey off Bereaved People. Topics covered include the percentage of respondents who rated the overall quality of end-of-life care for their relative as outstanding, the lower percentage of respondents who evaluated hospital case as outstanding and the reasons for the stagnation in the survey results. Also mentioned is the commitment to promote high-quality care for adults at the end of their life. To read the full article, log in using your NHS OpenAthens details
Individuals with an intellectual disability are vulnerable to having end-of-life decisions made for them merely due to the presence of a disability. As a result, decisions made by others may not reflect the exact wishes of the individual. Please contact the library to request a copy of this article - http://bit.ly/1Xyazai
Findings demonstrate that families hold an inherent capacity to make meaning of the death and enact family thereafter. Family relations arose as interplay of different, contradicting forces. Nurses should facilitate families’ meaning-making of the death, attend to their converging and diverging sense of loss and strengthen family caring. Login using your SSSFT NHS OpenAthens for full text. SSOTP - You can request a copy of this article by replying to this email. Please ensure you are clear which article you are requesting.
Discover how Leeds Teaching Hospitals provided a tailored approach to training, in the final of a suite of case studies focused on enhancing end-of-life care.
In addition to trust-wide training opportunities, the palliative care and end-of-life care specialists offered bespoke departmental teaching and focused interventions to improve care within specific clinical areas.