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Caring about dying: Palliative care and support for the terminally ill
Iona Joy & Sarah Sandford
April 2004, 75 pages
Death is an inevitability that we will all face. Most of us can consign it to the distant future. However, for people confronting terminal illness, death becomes a stark, imminent reality and the manner of dying becomes an important concern.
NPC's report, Caring about dying, focuses on the care, compassion and services needed during the final months of people's lives to let them live as fully and actively as possible.
Did you know?
- Over half of the UK population would prefer to die at home, yet only one fifth of people do.
- It costs just £325 per night to care for a dying patient and their loved ones in a hospice or at home.
The report highlights areas that donors could consider supporting, including:
- helping to improve non-medical aspects of care, such as counselling, complementary therapies and practical support for carers
- funding facilities for children and especially teenagers, who are often caught in the tricky space between children and adults' services, and
- tackling the under-funding of palliative care research.
‘What really struck me was that you only get one exit from life. We don’t want to die but it will happen. A good death can take away a lot of the fear of death. You want 5 star treatment when you only have a week left.’
Iona Joy, Senior research analyst
Charity insight
“80% of us would die to die at home or in a hospice but over half of us die in hospital.''
MARIE CURIE CANCER CARE is piloting new approaches to allow more people to spend the last days of their life in their own home and also to improve the care they receive during the last days of their life.
