The ageing of society is becoming a major public health issue, posing challenges to social and health care structures in many countries. This book demonstrates the added value of palliative care which, although traditionally focused on cancer and the very end of life, can play a role in strengthening and complementing the care of older people. The book outlines the current state of worldwide policy work, research, and innovations in the field of public health and palliative care for older people and concludes with recommendations for policy and decision makers, at international and national level.

Meeting the Needs of Older Adults with Serious Illness: Challenges and Opportunities in the Age of Health Care Reform provides an introduction to the principles of palliative care; describes current models of delivering palliative care across care settings, and examines opportunities in the setting of healthcare policy reform for palliative care to improve outcomes for patients, families and healthcare institutions. The United States is currently facing a crisis in health care marked by unsustainable spending and quality that is poor relative to international benchmarks. Yet this is also a critical time of opportunity. Because of its focus on quality of care, the Affordable Care Act is poised to expand access to palliative care services for the sickest, most vulnerable, and therefore most costly, 5% of patients- a small group who nonetheless drive about 50% of all healthcare spending. Palliative care is specialized medical care for people with serious illnesses. It focuses on providing patients with relief from the symptoms, pain, and stress of a serious illness—whatever the diagnosis or stage of illness. The goal is to improve quality of life for both the patient and the family. Research has demonstrated palliative care’s positive impact on health care value. Patients (and family caregivers) receiving palliative care experience improved quality of life, better symptom management, lower rates of depression and anxiety, and improved survival. Because patient and family needs are met, crises are prevented, thereby directly reducing need for emergency department and hospital use and their associated costs. An epiphenomenon of better quality of care, the lower costs associated with palliative care have been observed in multiple studies. Meeting the Needs of Older Adults with Serious Illness: Challenges and Opportunities in the Age of Health Care Reform, a roadmap for effective policy and program design, brings together expert clinicians, researchers and policy leaders, who tackle key areas where real-world policy options to improve access to quality palliative care could have a substantial role in improving value.

The growing geriatric population in the United States has created an increasing need for palliative medicine services across the range of medical and surgical specialties. Yet, palliative medicine lacks the resources to carry such a workload itself. Geriatric Palliative Care addresses this need by encouraging individual specialties to "own" the management of elderly with the same vigor as they "own" other key management competencies within their specialty. This clinically focused and highly practical handbook, which compliments the more comprehensive text Geriatric Palliative Care by Sean Morrison and Diane Meier (Oxford University Press, 2003), encourages this process of learning and ownership across many medical specialties. Designed to be readable and easily accessible to a range of health care providers, Geriatric Palliative Care outlines specific strategies for caring for specific palliative care issues common in elderly patients. The handbook also provides evidence based advice for helping patients, relatives, and staff cope with such issues as polypharmacy, dementia and consent, multiple pathologies, home care, elderly caregivers, and supporting the elderly in the place where they would like to be.

Ageing populations mean that palliative and end of life care for older people must assume greater priority. Indeed, there is an urgent need to improve the experiences of older people at the end of life, given that they have been identified as the 'disadvantaged dying'. To date, models of care are underpinned by the ideals of specialist palliative care which were developed to meet the needs of predominantly middle-aged and 'young old' people, and evidence suggests these may not be adequate for the older population group. This book identifies ways forward for improving the end of life experiences of older people by taking an interdisciplinary and international approach. Providing a synergy between the currently disparate literature of gerontology and palliative care, a wide range of leading international experts contribute to discussions regarding priority areas in relation to ageing and end of life care. Some authors take a theoretical focus, others a very practical approach rooted in their clinical and research experience. The issues covered are diverse, as are the countries in which discussions are contextualised. Those working in both palliative care and gerontology will find the issues and advice discussed in this book hugely topical and of real practical value.

This book explores the meaning of quality of life in care for older persons and introduces the reader to their main concerns when receiving care. Based on qualitative research, it pays particular attention to the needs and requirements of older people, considering their individual family situations, social circumstances, values and lifestyles. Person-centred care is a way of providing nursing care that puts older people and their families at the core of all decisions, seeing each person as an individual, and working together to develop appropriate solutions. Following an introduction to the concept of quality of life in old age, the book reviews essential findings from worldwide research into the experiences of older people with regard to nursing care and the impact of these experiences on their quality of life. It investigates health promotion, care provided in nursing homes and assisted living facilities, and palliative care. Each chapter includes a brief introduction to the respective field of nursing care and the problems it has to deal with, concluding with a discussion of their implications for nursing practice in the respective field of care. In closing, the evidence from qualitative research is discussed in relation to current gerontological theories.

Geriatric Palliative Care covers a broad spectrum of issues characterizing care for older adults living with complex and serious illness. Beginning with the social and cultural context of old age and frailty, this volume details specific aspects of palliative care relevant to particular disorders, individual symptoms, communication skills, and health systems.

Psychiatric, or psychosocial, palliative care has transformed palliative medicine. Palliation that neglects psychosocial dimensions of patient and family experience fails to meet contemporary standards of comprehensive palliative care. While a focus on somatic issues has sometimes overshadowed attention to psychological, existential, and spiritual end-of-life challenges, the past decade has seen an all encompassing, multi-disciplinary approach to care for the dying take hold. Written by internationally known psychiatry and palliative care experts, the Handbook of Psychiatry in Palliative Medicine is an essential reference for all providers of palliative care, including psychiatrists, psychologists, mental health counselors, oncologists, hospice workers, and social workers.