Due to the ageing population across Europe, a significant number of older people can expect to die in a nursing home or other long-term care settings – currently approximately 20% in the UK.
In recognition of the need to consider how to ensure that people dying in these settings receive the best care, the European Association of Palliative Care (EAPC) established a taskforce in 2010 to carry out a review of palliative care in long-term care settings across Europe.
The aim of the taskforce was to identify palliative care initiatives and create a compendium of good practice. The focus was on institutional settings, where care is provided for older people who live there, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for an undefined period of time.
Examples of initiatives were collected from 12 countries: Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and UK.
The report also identifies common themes and discusses the similarities and differences between countries. For example, there is a common emphasis on supporting older people to remain in their own homes at the end of life, which could mean a nursing home/care home which has become their home. However, obviously the context varies greatly between countries – funding models and responsibility of care vary, as do social/cultural factors such as the role of family and relatives, and the role of volunteers and informal care.
The full report can be downloaded from the EAPC taskforce website.
The work of the taskforce is ongoing, and they are encouraging other to share further examples of current practice – there is a template for this on the taskforce website.
Leave a Reply