Choices In Palliative Care

Choices in Palliative Care brings together leading experts to spotlight core issues in the field and identify ways PC can fill gaps in current care systems. This far-sighted volume redefines palliative care as interdisciplinary and integrative, bridging acute and long-term care to respond to clients’ evolving needs. Those teaching health service delivery courses will find this material especially useful.

Essentials of Palliative Care is a to-the-point, clinically oriented resource for all members of the multidisciplinary palliative care team and trainees. It covers practical clinical topics, including assessment of the patient and pain and symptom management, and practical non-medical topics central to providing effective palliative care, including psychological management, guidance on how to help patients and their families through the many healthcare decision points they face, and sensitivity to the goals and culture of the patient. Review questions, with detailed answers, provide a convenient way for readers to test their knowledge. Features: · Concise, comprehensive, clinically focused · Multiple choice review questions, with detailed answers · Expert contributors from leading institutions · Coordination of care by palliative care team a major focus

For patients and their loved ones, no care decisions are more profound than those made near the end of life. Unfortunately, the experience of dying in the United States is often characterized by fragmented care, inadequate treatment of distressing symptoms, frequent transitions among care settings, and enormous care responsibilities for families. According to this report, the current health care system of rendering more intensive services than are necessary and desired by patients, and the lack of coordination among programs increases risks to patients and creates avoidable burdens on them and their families. Dying in America is a study of the current state of health care for persons of all ages who are nearing the end of life. Death is not a strictly medical event. Ideally, health care for those nearing the end of life harmonizes with social, psychological, and spiritual support. All people with advanced illnesses who may be approaching the end of life are entitled to access to high-quality, compassionate, evidence-based care, consistent with their wishes. Dying in America evaluates strategies to integrate care into a person- and family-centered, team-based framework, and makes recommendations to create a system that coordinates care and supports and respects the choices of patients and their families. The findings and recommendations of this report will address the needs of patients and their families and assist policy makers, clinicians and their educational and credentialing bodies, leaders of health care delivery and financing organizations, researchers, public and private funders, religious and community leaders, advocates of better care, journalists, and the public to provide the best care possible for people nearing the end of life.

Developments are taking place in palliative care in which 'patient choice' has become a central idea, and patients have an enlarged idea of their best interests. This book creates debate among all those involved in care of the terminally ill including specialists, policy makers, researchers and ethicists.

In this volume, a distinguished group of physicians, ethicists, lawyers, and activists come together to present the case for the legalization of physician-assisted dying, for terminally ill patients who voluntarily request it. To counter the arguments and assumptions of those opposed to legalization of assisted suicide, the contributors examine ethical arguments concerning self-determination and the relief of suffering; analyze empirical data from Oregon and the Netherlands; describe their personal experiences as physicians, family members, and patients; assess the legal and ethical responsibilities of the physician; and discuss the role of pain, depression, faith, and dignity in this decision. Together, the essays in this volume present strong arguments for the ethical acceptance and legal recognition of the practice of physician-assisted dying as a last resort -- not as an alternative to excellent palliative care but as an important possibility for patients who seek it.

Legal change on the provision of assisted dying by healthcare professionals has occurred in a substantial number of jurisdictions. This work brings together contributions on end of life choices from experienced professionals from oncology disciplines, palliative care, law, nursing and professions allied to medicine. The goals are: • To better inform cancer care professionals and the wider community about developments in choices in end of life care for cancer patients internationally. • To better answer questions from patients and respond to their requests, including questions about and requests for assisted dying in countries where it is legal. • To have a balanced and well-informed dialogue about choices available to patients, without developing a formal policy position on change in law. • To provide a basis of information for future educational activities.

Decision Making near the End of Life provides a comprehensive overview of the recent developments that have impacted decision-making processes within the field of end-of-life care. The most current developments in all aspects of major underlying issues such as public attitudes, the impact of media, bioethics, and legal precedent provide the background information for the text. The authors examine various aspects of end-of-life choices and decision-making, including communication (between and among family, medical personnel, the dying person), advance directives, and the emergence of hospice and palliative care institutions. The book also explores a variety of psychosocial considerations that arise in decision-making, including religion/spirituality, family caregiving, disenfranchised and diverse groups, and the psychological and psychiatric problems that can impact both the dying person and loved ones. Case studies and first-person stories about decision-making, written by professionals in the field, bring a uniquely personal touch to this valuable text.

At the end of life, each story is different. Death comes suddenly, or a person lingers, gradually fading. For some older people, the body weakens while the mind stays alert. Others remain physically strong, but cognitive losses take a huge toll. Although everyone dies, each loss is personally felt by those close to the one who has died. End-of-life care is the term used to describe the support and medical care given during the time surrounding death. Such care does not happen only in the moments before breathing ceases and the heart stops beating. Older people often live with one or more chronic illnesses and need a lot of care for days, weeks, and even months before death. The goal of End of Life: Helping with Comfort and Care is to provide guidance and help in understanding the unfamiliar territory of death. This information is based on research, such as that supported by the National Institute on Aging (NIA), along with other parts of the National Institutes of Health.