Results: 33

For: end of life

HSJ Commission challenges anecdote-based practice for frail elderly

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Alison Turner considers the strengths and weaknesses of a new report which presents the findings of the HSJ Commission on Hospital Care for Frail Older People, asking key questions of commissioners, providers and patients.

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Advance care planning for people with advanced dementia

It's important that practitioners don't let dementia get in the way of other health problems, such as depression or anxiety. 

Clarissa Giebel, Researcher and PhD student at the University of Manchester, writes her debut Elf blog on a qualitative study about the experiences of advance care planning amongst family caregivers of people with advanced dementia.

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Confidential Inquiry into premature deaths WeLD Nurses tweet chat with authors and the LD Elf

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Following our recent post on what has happened since the publication of the CIPOLD Confidential Inquiry report, we joined a tweet chat hosted by WeLDNurses with two of the report’s authors: Pauline Heslop and Matt Hoghton.

It was a really lively hour with some fantastic contributions. Here we present a summary of the comments with some links to information that was mentioned during the chat itself.

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Nuffield Trust offers an insight into the costs of end of life care

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This report from the Nuffield Trust is an important addition to the literature base on end of life care as it attempts to quantify the costs involved in end of life care, from the perspectives of the various services involved.  Although there are limitations to the cost estimates, which are explicitly acknowledged, the findings will [read the full story…]

Medication in advanced dementia: how can we judge what is appropriate?

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Caroline Struthers appraises a recent US cross-sectional study of the use of medications of “questionable benefit” in nursing home residents with advanced dementia. She concludes that all medications are of questionable value if they have side effects which might have a negative impact on quality of life or are likely to cause harm.

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Premature deaths of people with learning disabilities – reflections on Department of Health progress report

DH progress on CIPOLD

The Government progress report on the Confidential Inquiry into Premature Deaths of People with Learning Disabilities was published last week. In this blog, Pauline Heslop and colleagues who wrote the original Confidential Inquiry, reflect on the progress that has been made and what still needs to be done.

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Challenges in respecting autonomy in end-of-life care of people with learning disabilities

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Autonomy is defined as the freedom to determine one’s own actions or behaviour. It is a value at the heart of health and social care support and those supporting people with learning disabilities are constantly striving to maintain and indeed increase the autonomy of those they provide help to. The authors of this Netherlands based [read the full story…]

Dementia through the eyes of a carer: What would you want for your relative?

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Josephine Neale summarises a recent review of qualitative evidence that finds carers’ views are mixed and lie on a spectrum of acceptance of their relative as actively dying with dementia.

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Combination of clinical and managerial expertise transform local healthcare, case studies demonstrate

Three trees, shaped as heads, during different seasons

This collection of case studies is aimed at all people involved in the development and delivery of quality health services, in particular, commissioners, local authorities, voluntary sectors, and health professionals in all settings, including primary and secondary care. Some of the CCGs are also working with organisations from the retail sector, for example John Lewis. [read the full story…]

Seeing is believing; how does family presence during cardiopulmonary resuscitation affect psychological outcomes for family members?

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There are around 60,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests in the UK every year. Some of these events occur in the presence of relatives who may witness the cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) by the resuscitation team (you can find out more about CPR at the Resuscitation Council’s website). The emotional consequences of this for the relatives and the [read the full story…]