The importance of palliative care for children facing life threatening illness and their families is now widely acknowledged as an essential part of care, which should be available to all children and families, throughout the child's illness and at the end of life. The new edition of the Oxford Textbook of Palliative Care for Children brings together the most up to date information, current knowledge, evidence, and developments of clinical practice in the field. The book is structured into four sections. 'Foundations of Care' describes core issues, the foundations on which paediatric palliative care is based. 'Child and Family Care' looks at different aspects of psychological, social, and cultural care for the sick child or young person, and their family. These chapters cover the time course of the illness, around the time of death and support for the bereaved family. 'Symptom Care' focuses on the uses of medication, specific symptoms, and their management. Finally, 'Delivery of Care' examines practical approaches to care in different environments and the needs of clinicians. Two new editors join the team from Canada and South Africa, reflecting our aims to contribute towards the development of care for children across the world, and to be a resource for both experienced clinicians and those new to the field. Comprehensive in scope, exhaustive in detail, and definitive in authority, this third edition has been thoroughly updated to cover new practices, current epidemiological data, and the evolving models that support the delivery of palliative medicine to children. This includes two new chapters, looking in detail at 'Decision Making' and 'Perinatal Care', and a new section highlighting the emerging importance of 'Palliative Care for Children in Humanitarian Crises'. This book is an essential resource for anyone who works with children worldwide.

A practical, empowering guide to navigating your partner's diagnosis of a terminal or life-limiting illness, or death. Receiving the news that your partner has a terminal or life-limiting illness, or has died unexpectedly, is among the worst experiences in life. At a time when you are least able to cope, you are faced with a multitude of difficult decisions, some of which must be made quickly. What you need is a friend who has experienced everything you are about to face, who can support you as you navigate some tough, important choices. This book is that friend. There is plenty of information out there but where to start looking? What information is needed and how can it be accessed? What decisions are essential in the immediate term and what can be left until later? Throughout the book, the emphasis is on protecting and supporting those left behind by presenting almost every choice you may need to make and the possible implications of each decision. You will learn: - The importance of creating a will, arranging power of attorney, organising advanced decisions of treatment, and even getting married or entering a civil partnership - What you are entitled to from the state, the NHS and your employer - How to stabilise your finances and prepare to run a household alone - Where your partner ought to be during treatment and/or palliative care, and how to go about achieving this - Which decisions need to be made after death, from planning the funeral to accessing your partner's estate - How to navigate the grieving process and take control of a happy future No matter where you are in the process, How to Survive Losing a Loved One is a comprehensive, practical and empowering guide to coping with your partner's terminal illness and death, and building the next chapter in your life.

The Oxford Textbook of Palliative Nursing remains the most comprehensive treatise on the art and science of palliative care nursing available. Dr. Betty Rolling Ferrell and Dr. Judith A. Paice have invited 162 nursing experts to contribute 76 chapters addressing the physical, psychological, social, and spiritual needs pertinent to the successful palliative care team. Organized within 7 Sections, this new edition covers the gamut of principles of care: from the time of initial diagnosis of a serious illness to the end of a patient's life and beyond. This fifth edition features several new chapters, including chapters on advance care planning, organ donation, self-care, global palliative care, and the ethos of palliative nursing. Each chapter is rich with tables and figures, case examples for improved learning, and a strong evidence-based practice to support the highest quality of care. The book offers a valuable and practical resource for students and clinicians across all settings of care. The content is relevant for specialty hospice agencies and palliative care programs, as well as generalist knowledge for schools of nursing, oncology, critical care, and pediatric. Developed with the intention of emphasizing the need to extend palliative care beyond the specialty to be integrated in all settings and by all clinicians caring for the seriously ill, this new edition will continue to serve as the cornerstone of palliative care education.

Volunteers have a long been involved in supporting the delivery of palliative care. Indeed in some countries, the range and quality of hospice and palliative care services depends on the involvement of volunteers. Hospice and palliative care services and volunteering are changing. As society develops, so too does volunteering. Volunteers have growing expectations of organizations, and increasingly seek roles that meet their needs and aspirations, rather than fitting in with organizational approaches. As hospice and palliative care services experience increasing and changing demands for their services due to aging populations with complex healthcare needs, we need to recognize that volunteers have a vital role to play in supporting the delivery of services of the future. The Changing Face of Volunteering in Hospice and Palliative Care explores the complex phenomenon that is volunteering in hospice and palliative care in different countries. It considers how and why volunteering is changing, through the contributions of authors from Western and Eastern Europe, North America, Australia, Africa, and India. It reflects on the influence of culture and organisational contexts, in addition to management approaches, legislative, and political influences, highlighting factors that contribute to the success of volunteering. Contributing to knowledge and understanding in the field of volunteering in hospice and palliative care internationally, this book highlights the factors that contribute to the success of volunteering models, allowing readers to see possibilities for change and find new ideas for innovative practice in their own setting.

Palliative Psychology provides unique and comprehensive training for psychologists specializing in palliative and end of life care. Chapters explore the complex, psychological needs of patients and family caregivers, as well as the knowledge, skills, and attitudes psychologists need to work effectively in an interdisciplinary palliative care setting. Psychologists will learn how to combine a therapeutic presence with the ability to provide patient- and family-centered, evidence-based assessment and interventions throughout the trajectory of illness. Focus points and numerous real case discussions complement each chapter. Palliative Psychology also addresses crucial professional issues, including communication and collaboration with health care providers and work stress. The text discusses how psychologists can best communicate the results of assessments and treatment goals to other care providers in order to better advocate for patients and family caregivers. It also highlights the important role of psychologists in helping other clinicians recognize and address work stress. Insightful and practical suggestions for professional self-care will help psychologists manage the emotional intensity of palliative care and enhance their work with patients and caregivers.

The importance of spiritual well-being and the role of "meaning" in moderating depression, hopelessness and desire for death in terminally-ill cancer and AIDS patients has been well-supported by research, and has led many palliative clinicians to look beyond the role of antidepressant treatment in this population. Clinicians are focusing on the development of non-pharmacologic interventions that can address issues such as hopelessness, loss of meaning, and spiritual well-being in patients with advanced cancer at the end of life. This effort led to an exploration and analysis of the work of Viktor Frankl and his concepts of logotherapy, or meaning-based psychotherapy. While Frankl's logotherapy was not designed for the treatment of patients with life-threatening illnesses, his concepts of meaning and spirituality have inspired applications in psychotherapeutic work with advanced cancer patients, many of whom seek guidance and help in dealing with issues of sustaining meaning, hope, and understanding cancer and impending death in the context of their lives. Individual Meaning-Centered Group Psychotherapy (IMCP), an intervention developed and rigorously tested by the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, is a seven-week program that utilizes a mixture of didactics, discussion and experiential exercises that focus around particular themes related to meaning and advanced cancer. Patients are assigned readings and homework that are specific to each session's theme and which are utilized in each session. While the focus of each session is on issues of meaning and purpose in life in the face of advanced cancer and a limited prognosis, elements of support and expression of emotion are inevitable in the context of each group session. The structured intervention presented in this manual can be provided by a wide array of clinical disciplines, ranging from chaplains, nurses, palliative care physicians, to counselors, psychotherapists, social workers, graduate psychology students, psychologists and psychiatrists.

How is it possible for practitioners of the healing arts to cope with the deaths of children and the devastating grief of their families? Physician Robert McKelvey looks squarely at this painful question and gets to the heart of it in When a Child Dies. Although the stories he tells are replete with heartbreak, he achieves a higher purpose by illuminating the successes and failures of medical training in helping doctors and nurses confront these deaths. McKelvey interviews members of a pediatric hospital staff, specifically those working in intensive care and hematology-oncology units where children often die and where caretakers have a great deal of experience with terminal illness. His interview subjects discuss their family backgrounds and what led them into medicine; their education, training, and on-the-job experience that helps them deal with death; their emotional reactions to the death of a young person; and their styles of coping, both personally and professionally. This is the first book to focus on the grieving process of physicians and nurses for their child patients. There is a wealth of information here that will be recognizable and comforting to those already in the medical profession and that will help in the training of those about to enter the profession. Physicians, nurses, and medical students, as well as sociologists, social workers, psychologists, psychiatrists, the clergy, and families, will find this book invaluable.

This book brings together music therapists who have worked in the challenging and rewarding world of children's palliative care. Examining techniques from working just with the breath, to technological advances in music therapy such as assistive recording and electronic downloading, it highlights the benefits music therapy can bring when working alongside children and young people. Drawing on the knowledge of expert music therapists, the book provides accessible guidance that practitioners can apply to their own work, including on professional development as part of a multi-disciplinary team, service evaluation, and managing publicity in the hospice setting. It addresses work with different client groups, such as teenagers, and discusses therapy with family members, including siblings. Music therapists and healthcare practitioners will be provided with the tools to reflect on their own professional challenges and deepen their understanding of the important role of music therapy in this sector.

Delirium is a complex syndrome with a multifactorial aetiology and is characterized by marked disturbances of consciousness, attention, memory, perception, thought, sleep-wake cycle, and by fluctuation of symptoms. This book covers in detail the pathophysiology, epidemiology, clinical aspects, differential diagnosis, and management of the syndrome. Due to the special characteristics of the syndrome, specific chapters deal with different aetiologies and populations at risk, with emphasis on the critically ill and palliative care patients. As delirium often announces or anticipates the proximity of death, family issues are considered in a comprehensive final chapter, covering the impact of terminal illness on the family and the process of bereavement. The book emphasises the need for assessing and diagnosing delirium with reliable instruments, and a chapter on assessment is reinforced by including appendices of many of the most relevant instruments reported in recent literature. The evidence from the literature is always distinguished from the authors' opinions and most chapters are integrated by the presentation of case examples. Updated for the second edition this book contains new material on topics including classification systems, more data on populations at risk, and significant new material on the family and bereavement. Delirium: Acute confusional states in palliative medicine, Second Edition demonstrates that only an interdisciplinary treatment of delirium between neurology, psychiatry and palliative medicine can develop knowledge of the syndrome and improve patient and family care. This book has been written for palliative care physicians and specialist nurses, neurologists, psychiatrists, and other health professionals treating terminally ill patients, offering them a clear account of how to recognize and deal with the syndrome.

Life and Death in Intensive Care offers a unique portrait of the surgical intensive care unit (SICU), the place in medical centers and hospitals where patients with the gravest medical conditions-from comas to terminal illness-are treated. Author Joan Cassell employs the concept of \u0022moral economies\u0022 to explain the dilemmas that patients, families, and medical staff confront in treatment. Drawing upon her fieldwork conducted in both the United States and New Zealand, Cassell compares the moral outlooks and underlying principles of SICU nurses, residents, intensivists, and surgeons. Using real life examples, Life and Death in Intensive Care clearly presents the logic and values behind the SICU as well as the personalities, procedures, and pressures that characterize every case. Ultimately, Cassell demonstrates the differing systems of values, and the way cultural definitions of medical treatment inform how we treat the critically ill.

The International Handbook of Art Therapy in Palliative and Bereavement Care offers a multicultural and international perspective on how art therapy can be of help to individuals, groups, families, communities, and nations facing death and dying as well as grief and loss. Over 50 art therapists from around the world write about the transforming power of art therapy in the lives of those facing terminal illness, dementia, loss, and grief. They offer practical descriptions and techniques for working with adults and children to guide professionals, including those new to using art therapy and creative approaches in end-of-life care services. This international handbook is essential reading for arts therapists, social workers, medical personnel, faith leaders, and psychologists interested in a collaborative and accessible approach to working with patients and families affected by loss.

What do you need to know in order to provide the best possible care for sick children of different faiths? What, in the context of the young person's faith, might it be helpful to know to support the child and the family, improve care, communicate sensitively and avoid causing offence? Drawing on extensive, evidence-based research and practice, this practical resource addresses the multi-faith needs of sick and dying children and young people in hospitals and the wider community. Covering Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism, Judaism and Buddhism, it provides the key information needed to help multi-disciplinary healthcare staff offer the best, culturally-appropriate care to sick children and their families. The book discusses daily, palliative, end of life and bereavement care in a range of settings, including hospitals, hospices, schools and home. The information provided covers those aspects of the religions discussed that are essential for healthcare staff to understand, including modesty and hygiene, taboos, food and prohibited products, age-related issues, sacred objects, visitors, and the expectations of the family. It includes important information on the issues of disability and mental health in each faith as well as addressing the significance within different faith traditions of the transitions from childhood to adolescence to adulthood. A comprehensive resource that uniquely focuses on the care needs of sick children from different faiths, this book will be of immeasurable value to multi-disciplinary healthcare professionals including doctors, nurses, bereavement support and palliative care workers, carers, counsellors, chaplains and arts therapists.

In this far-ranging textbook on palliative and end of life care, John Costello and a team of palliative care specialists take a patient-centred approach. Discussing palliative and end of life care across a range of diseases and illnesses, each chapter includes real-life case studies that focus on both the patient experience and the experiences of the family members of service users. Original in its approach to palliative and end of life care, Adult Palliative Care focuses on a range of non-cancer conditions. Thoughtfully balancing theory with practice, and interprofessional in its scope, Adult Palliative Care would benefit any health professional dealing with or working in the field of palliative and end of life care.

Looking after children with life-limiting conditions is very difficult for both parents and health care professionals. This second edition of Paediatric Palliative Medicine is full of easily-accessible, detailed information , and covers all aspects of the care of children with life-limiting illnesses. It is designed to equip clinicians with the knowledge, and its evidence base, to improve clinical care. Using the bestselling Oxford Specialist Handbook format to deliver practical and concise information, this handbook facilitates bedside delivery of effective palliative medicine to children. It includes a quick reference drug formulary and detailed information on medical conditions and symptom control. There are also specific management plans to guide professionals, whether the child is in their own home, in a hospital, or a hospice. Many children with long term conditions have symptoms which need management, and the principles of palliative care for children need to be known by all who are involved in their care. The unique significance of this handbook is its capacity to guide professionals who have not trained or had experience of caring for the dying child, as well as for students and trainees interested in paediatric palliative care. Children's palliative medicine encompasses symptom control but is not limited to it. This handbook also provides a wealth of information on the philosophy and models that support delivery of palliative medicine to children, as well as the learning and coping skills required in palliative care. Fully updated with an expanded formulary and a new chapter on the intensive care unit, this new edition continues to be the authoritative reference tool in paediatric palliative care.

This volume examines crucial concerns in palliative care, including the proper balance between comfort and cure for the patient, the integration of spiritual well-being, and the challenges of providing care in the absence of basic medical services and supplies. In the first section, palliative-care pioneers Constance Dahlin, Eduardo Bruera, Neil MacDonald, and Declan Walsh recount the early history of the discipline. Part 2 discusses the role of poetry, prose, plays, and other aspects of the humanities in the practice of palliative care. Part 3 explores essential current issues in the field, including autonomy, the use of opioids, and the impact of artificial intelligence on the evolution of palliative care. The final section focuses on the spiritual dimensions of pain and suffering. Rich with anecdotes and personal stories and featuring contributions from pioneers and current practitioners, The Pursuit of Life is an essential assessment of the past, present, and future of palliative care. In addition to the editors, the contributors include W. Andrew Achenbaum, Stacy L. Auld, Elena Pagani Bagliacca, Costantino Benedetti, Courtenay Bruce, Eduardo Bruera, Joseph Calandrino, Jim Cleary, Constance Dahlin, Andrea Ferrari, Mauro Ferrari, Joseph J. Fins, Bettie Jo Tennon Hightower, Kathryn B. Kirkland, Robin W. Lovin, Neil MacDonald, Charles Millikan, Dominique J. Monlezun, Tullio Proserpio, Giovanna Sironi, Daniel P. Sulmasy, and Declan Walsh.

Palliative Care is the first book to provide a comprehensive understanding of the new field that is transforming the way Americans deal with serious illness.

Diane E. Meier, M.D., one of the field's leaders and a recipient of a MacArthur Foundation "genius award" in 2009, opens the volume with a sweeping overview of the field. In her essay, Dr. Meier examines the roots of palliative care, explores the key legal and ethical issues, discusses the development of palliative care, and presents ideas on policies that can improve access to palliative care.

Dr. Meier's essay is followed by reprints of twenty-five of the most important articles in the field. They range from classic pieces by some of the field's pioneers, such as Eric Cassel, Balfour Mount, and Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, to influential newer articles on topics such as caregiving and cost savings of palliative care. The reprints cover a wide range of topics including:

Why the care of the seriously ill is so important

Efforts to cope with advanced illness

Legal and ethical issues

Pain management

Cross-cultural issues

Philosophical perspective

The demand for palliative care has been nothing short of stunning--largely because of palliative care's positive impact on both the quality and the cost of care provided to seriously ill individuals. By providing a wide-ranging perspective on this growing field, this book will serve as a guide for developing meaningful approaches that will lead to better health care for all Americans.

The first comprehensive, clinically focused guide to help hospitalists and other hospital-based clinicians provide quality palliative care in the inpatient setting. Written for practicing clinicians by a team of experts in the field of palliative care and hospital care, Hospital-Based Palliative Medicine: A Practical, Evidence-Based Approach offers: * Comprehensive content over three domains of inpatient palliative care: symptom management, communication and decision making, and practical skills, * Detailed information on assessment and management of symptoms commonly experienced by seriously ill patients, * Advise on the use of specific communication techniques to address sensitive topics such as prognosis, goals of care, code status, advance care planning, and family meetings in a patient- and family-centered manner, * Targeted content for specific scenarios, including palliative care emergencies, care at the end of life, and an overview of post-hospital palliative care options, * Self-care strategies for resilience and clinician wellness which can be used to help maintain an empathic, engaged, workforce and high quality patient care, * A consistent chapter format with highlighted clinical pearls and pitfalls, ensuring the material is easily accessible to the busy hospitalist and associated hospital staff. This title will be of use to all hospital clinicians who care for seriously ill patients and their families. Specialist-trained palliative care clinicians will also find this title useful by outlining a framework for the delivery of palliative care by the patient s front-line hospital providers. Also available in the in the Hospital-Based Medicine: Current Concepts series: Inpatient Anticoagulation Margaret C. Fang, Editor, 2011 Hospital Images: A Clinical Atlas Paul B. Aronowitz, Editor, 2012 Becoming a Consummate Clinician: What Every Student, House Officer, and Hospital Practitioner Needs to Know Ary L. Goldberger and Zachary D. Goldberger, Editors, 2012 Perioperative Medicine: Medical Consultation and Co-Management Amir K. Jaffer and Paul J. Grant, Editors, 2012 Clinical Care Conundrums: Challenging Diagnoses in Hospital Medicine James C. Pile, Thomas E. Baudendistel, and Brian J. Harte, Editors, 2013 Inpatient Cardiovascular Medicine Brahmajee K. Nallamothu and Timir S. Baman, Editors 2013

As we live longer and die slower and differently than our ancestors, we have come to rely more and more on end-of-life caregivers. These workers navigate a changing landscape of old age and death that many of us have little preparation to encounter. "How We Die Now" is an absorbing and sensitive investigation of end-of-life issues from the perspectives of patients, relatives, medical professionals, and support staff.aKarla Erickson immersed herself in the daily life of workers and elders in a Midwestern community for over two years to explore important questions around the theme of OC how we die now.OCO She moves readers through and beyond the many fears that attend the social condition of old age and reveals the pleasures of living longer and the costs of slower, sometimes senseless ways of dying.aFor all of us who are grappling with the OC elder boom, OCO "How We Die Now" offers new ways of thinking about our longer lives."