Concerned with practices in palliative care, this text focuses on the psycho-social aspects of palliative care as opposed to the medical and nursing dimensions. Beginning with a framework of the interdependence of all aspects which is characteristic of the holistic nature of the subject, the book is intended to help readers identify the principles which underpin good practice in the non-medical dimensions in palliative care. The book caters for the professional reader and should be relevant to nurses, doctors, physiotherapists, occupational therapists and managers, as well as social workers undertaking professional training and working in palliative care.

Presents a view of hospice care through the eyes of a long-term hospice nurse. This title includes stories which are accompanied by discussion of end-of-life issues that arise among the families hospice nurse has served. It is useful for health care and social worker and layperson alike.

Use of the arts in palliative care settings is a powerful and effective way of addressing the practical, psychological, social and spiritual issues faced by service users in end-of-life care. The Creative Arts in Palliative Care uncovers the possibilities for using the creative arts and provides guidance on how to implement arts projects successfully. Part 1 focuses on designing objectives for the creative arts in palliative care - such as self-fulfilment, social participation, diversion from pain and other common symptoms - and managing creative arts services. Part 2 demonstrates the theory and principles in practice, with detailed case studies: each chapter draws on a real-life project, the approaches it employed and the outcomes achieved. This book will be essential reading for healthcare professionals, arts practitioners and all those involved in providing palliative care services.

'Warm, wise and practical' Cressida Cowell, MBE An invaluable reference for parents of sick or hospitalised children by an experienced and eminent psychologist. To many parents, it is hard to imagine a more upsetting reality than one where their child is hospitalised, severely sick, or terminally ill. In When Your Child is Sick, psychologist Joanna Breyer distils decades of experience working with sick children and their families into a comprehensive guide for navigating the uncharted and frightening terrain. She provides expert advice to guide them through the hospital setting, at-home care, and long-term outcomes. Breyer's actionable techniques and direct advice will help parents feel more in-control of a circumstance that has upended their life. She alerts parents to key personnel in the hospital, gives dialogue prompts to help parents ask for the help they need, addresses the needs of their other children at home, offers advice on how to best utilise friends and family who want to help, includes stories from other families who have been there, and teaches coping techniques to help both parents and children weather the stress of prolonged illness and even death. When Your Child is Sick is a valuable guide to managing the myriad practical and emotional complications of an impossible situation.

Palliative medicine is the medical care provided for people who have a life limiting illness or condition. It encompasses both the physical symptoms a person may experience but also the psychosocial, emotional, and ethical issues that may arise. Now in its fourth edition, Palliative Medicine: A Case-Based Manual walks clinicians through the management of the most common situations found in palliative medicine, from diagnosis and managing symptoms through to grief and bereavement. Using real patient case scenarios and an easy-to-read question and answer format, it gives students and medical professionals an accessible, evidence-based entryway to gain the skills and knowledge needed to provide high quality palliative and end of life care to patients and their families. This new edition has been fully updated to cover the latest guidance, including new chapters dedicated to medical cannabis, opioids, grief and bereavement, and wider issues including palliative care in the community, structurally vulnerable populations, and public health. Written by over 50 experienced palliative care clinicians and educators, this book will be a welcome guide for palliative care workers, medical and nursing students, and medical professionals of any specialty where palliative needs might arise.

This book helps nursing and healthcare students to prepare for the challenges of working with the increasing number of patients requiring palliative care, so that they can work in partnership with patients and their carers, providing care that is compassionate, practical and backed up by the latest evidence. Delivering palliative care can be emotionally challenging and the book focuses on supporting healthcare staff, allowing them to provide the care that is needed. Key features include: * case studies in every chapter, helping students to practically work through difficult scenarios * reflective activities that assist readers in thinking critically about their care and how to improve it * a holistic approach to palliative care that includes family, carers and interprofessional work * up to date theory and policy. Palliative Care in Nursing and Healthcare is suitable for undergraduate nursing students and allied health students and practitioners. Michelle Brown is Senior Lecturer at the University of Derby.

When Professionals Weep speaks to the humbling and often transformational moments that clinicians experience in their careers as caregivers and healers-moments when it is often hard to separate the influence of our own emotional responses and worldviews from the patient's or family's. When ProfessionalsWeep addresses these poignant moments-when the professional's personal experiences with trauma, illness, death, and loss can subtly, often stealthily, surface and affect the helping process. This edition, like the first, both validates clinicians' experiences and also helps them process and productively address compassion fatigue, burnout, and secondary traumatic stress. New material in the second edition includes increased emphasis on the burgeoning fields of hospice and palliative care, organizational countertransference, mindfulness, and compassionate practice. It includes thought-provoking cases, self-assessments, and exercises that can be used on an individual, dyadic, or group basis. This volume is an invaluable handbook for practitioners in the fields of medicine, mental health, social work, nursing, chaplaincy, the allied health sciences, psychology, and psychiatry.

Individuals and families face challenges at the end of life that can vary significantly depending on social and cultural contexts, yet more than ever is now known about the needs that cut across the great diversity of experiences in the face of dying and death. A number of behavioural interventions and clinical approaches to addressing these needs have been developed and are available to help providers care for clients and assist them in achieving their goals. Perspectives on Palliative and End-of-Life Care: Disease, Social and Cultural Contexts explores how these interventions can be used to address a range of issues across social and cultural contexts for those in need of end of life care. With perspectives from experienced clinicians, providers, and caregivers from around the world, the book offers a strong foundation in contemporary evidence-based practice alongside seasoned practice insights from the field and explores interventions for people as diverse as HIV caregivers in Africa and individuals dying with dementia. In addition, readers will learn about the process of caring for individuals with chronic illnesses including severe mental illness; weigh the impact of policy regulations on the availability of and access to palliative care and interventions; and be able to compare the different issues experienced by family caregivers and formal caregivers. As the companion volume to Perspectives on Behavioural Interventions in Palliative and End-of-Life Care, this book will be of interest to a wide variety of individuals, such as academics, researchers and postgraduates in the fields of mental health, medicine, psychology and social work. It will also be essential reading for healthcare providers and trainees from psychosocial and palliative medicine, social work and nursing.

This book provides an up-to-date description of cross-cultural aspects of end-of-life decision-making. The work places this discussion in the context of developments in the United States such as the emphasis on patient informed consent, "right to die" legal cases, and the federal Patient Self-Determination Act. With the globalization of health care and increased immigration from developing to developed countries, health care professionals are experiencing unique challenges in communicating with seriously ill patients and their families about treatment options as well as counselling all patients about advance medical care planning. While many Western countries emphasize individual autonomy and patient-centered decision-making, cultures with a greater collectivist orientation have, historically, often protected patients from negative health information and emphasized family-centered decision-making. In order to place these issues in context, the history of informed consent in medicine is reviewed. Additionally, cross-cultural issues in health care decision-making are analysed from the perspective of multiple philosophical theories including deontology, utilitarianism, virtues, principlism, and communitarian ethics. This book is a valuable addition to courses on end-of-life care, death and dying, cross-cultural health, medical anthropology, and medical ethics and an indispensable guide for healthcare workers dealing with patients coming from various cultural backgrounds.

The Clinical Pocket Guide to Advanced Practice Palliative Nursing is a companion guide to Advanced Practice Palliative Nursing, the first text devoted to advanced practice nursing care of the seriously ill and dying. Each chapter of this pocket guide presents point-of-care guidance on palliative care issues for quick reference in daily practice. Edited by leaders in the field, this handbook provides consistency in the nursing process from assessment to management and evaluation of symptoms and various clinical situations. The Clinical Pocket Guide to Advanced Practice Palliative Nursing contains clinical pearls developed from the textbook and practical tools on pain and symptom assessment, functional status, and communication, making it an ideal resource for practicing APNs.

Palliative care is an essential element of our health care system and is becoming increasingly significant amidst an aging society and organizations struggling to provide both compassionate and cost-effective care. Palliative care is also characterized by a strong interdisciplinary approach, and nurses are at the center of the palliative care team across settings and populations. The sixth volume in the HPNA Palliative Nursing Manuals series, Social Aspects of Care provides an overview of the financial and mental stress illness places, not just on the patient, but on the family as well. This volume contains information on how to support families in palliative care, cultural considerations important in end-of-life care, sexuality and the impact of illness, planning for the actual death, and bereavement. The content of the concise clinically focused volumes in the HPNA Palliative Nursing Manuals series is an ideal resource for nurses preparing for certification exams and provides a quick-reference in daily practice.

Palliative care is an essential element of our health care system and becoming increasingly significant amidst an aging society and organizations struggling to provide both compassionate and cost effective care. Palliative care is also characterized by a strong interdisciplinary approach. Nurses are at the center of the palliative care team across settings and populations. The second volume in the HPNA Palliative Nursing Series, Physical Aspects of Care: Pain, Nausea and Vomiting, Fatigue and Bowel Management, provides an overview of the principles of symptom assessment and management for symptoms including: pain, fatigue, nausea and vomiting, constipation, diarrhea, obstruction, and ascites. The content of the concise, clinically-focused volumes in the HPNA series prepares nurses for certification exams as well as quick-reference in daily practice. Plentiful tables, figures, and practical tools such as assessment instruments, pharmacology tables, and patient teaching points make these volumes useful resources for nurses.

Winner of the Michael Ramsay Prize 2016 Dementia is one of the most feared diseases in Western society today. Some have even gone so far as to suggest euthanasia as a solution to the perceived indignity of memory loss and the disorientation that accompanies it. In this book John Swinton develops a practical theology of dementia for caregivers, people with dementia, ministers, hospital chaplains, and medical practitioners as he explores two primary questions: * Who am I when I've forgotten who I am? * What does it mean to love God and be loved by God when I have forgotten who God is? Offering compassionate and carefully considered theological and pastoral responses to dementia and forgetfulness, Swinton's Dementia: Living in the Memories of God redefines dementia in light of the transformative counter story that is the gospel.

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.

Patients with advanced cancer may develop a number of clinical complications related to tumor progression or a variety of aggressive treatments. The majority of these patients are elderly, often with multiple co-morbidities that require appropriate assessment and management. In the palliative stage of their disease, patients undergo a progressive transition from active acute care to community-based hospice care. This transition requires modification in the diagnostic tests, monitoring procedures and pharmacological treatments to adjust them to the palliative and short-term nature of the care. Internal Medicine Issues in Palliative Cancer Care looks at internal medicine through a prognosis-based framework and provides a practical approach to maximizing comfort and quality of life while minimizing aggressive investigations and therapies for patients with life-limiting disease. Forty-six common internal medicine conditions are organized into nine clinical categories: pulmonary, cardiovascular, nephrologic and metabolic, gastrointestinal, hematologic, infectious, endocrine, rheumatologic, and neuro-psychiatric. This evidence-based resource is ideal for educating clinicians delivering palliative care to cancer patients in acute care facilities about complex internal medicine problems, decision-making regarding diagnostics and therapeutics which require a good understanding of state-of-the-art internal medicine and palliative care principles.

Over the last thirty years, the concern of Pain Medicine practitioners about the potential for their patients to develop a dependence on opioids has left opioid therapy as a largely underutilized treatment. While there is no simple answer to chronic pain, opioids remain the only class of drugs capable of providing relief to patients experiencing serious pain. Opioid Therapy in the 21st Century, Second Edition fills a dearth of clinical knowledge about analgesics to aid practitioners in weighing the risks versus the benefits of opioid therapy for their chronic pain patients. Part of the Oxford American Pain Library, this concise guide serves as a practical, user-friendly reference for physicians across the range of primary care and medical specialties. It includes an overview of appropriate clinical applications of opioids, covering such topics as opioid pharmacology, route selection, and individualization of therapy, as well as strategies for managing and mitigating the risk of abuse, addiction, and diversion. There are also special sections dedicated to the unique needs of pediatric, geriatric, and palliative care patient populations. This second edition discusses opioids approved for use since publication of the first edition, such as Butrans (buprenorphine patch); fentanyl patch and nasal spray; abuse resistant version of Oxycontin; and Embeda (morphine sulfate). Approved indications for older opioids as well as clinical trial information have also been updated.

Participatory research is a relatively new method of researching practice especially within palliative care. It differs from other methodologies in that there is an expectation of action within the research process. The values that underpin participatory research are collaboration, empowerment, and reflection. In the current climate of collaboration and working with people in healthcare, participatory research methods are gaining increasing interest when there is a desire to bring about change. Organisational change is becoming an important focus as we look at ways of not only reducing costs but at the same time improving quality of care. While palliative care puts the patient and family at the centre, Participatory Research in Palliative Care discusses a new research methodology that puts practitioners at the heart of the research process as collaborators who work together with researchers to resolve problems in practice. Divided into three sections, it provides theoretical groundings of action research, a greater focus on exemplars from studies within palliative care, and discusses prominent issues when using such a methodology. All three sections are illustrated by an action research study undertaken by the author within a palliative care setting. Participatory Research in Palliative Care is written by international, multi-disciplinary authors who explore a collaborative approach to embark on research. It will appeal to health and social care professionals, academics undertaking research within palliative care, and the management of organisations where people with end of life care needs are cared for, including long-term care homes.

Grief is a very individual experience and it can impact all aspects of a person's life. Parents and Bereavement: A Personal and Professional Exploration of Grief brings together latest research and practice from the pioneering children and young adults' hospice - Helen and Douglas House, alongside the personal experience of a parent. The book includes information on a range of challenges faced by parents, including supporting surviving children, making challenging decisions about subsequent pregnancies, managing the impact of grief on relationships, and facing birthdays and anniversaries. It discusses both, the theories and the day-to-day experience of grief, and what might make a difference to how people manage it. This will be an invaluable resource for professionals involved in supporting families with end of life care and bereavement issues, including palliative care professionals, counsellors, and social workers. Parents and Bereavement will also help parents, family, and friends to understand and support each other through such loss.

During a pandemic lockdown full of pyjama dance parties, life talks, and final goodbyes, a family helps a father die with dignity. In April 2020, journalist Mitchell Consky received bad news: his father was diagnosed with a rare and terminal cancer, with less than two months to live. Suddenly, he and his extended family -- many of them healthcare workers -- were tasked with reconciling the social distancing required by the Covid-19 pandemic with a family-based approach to end-of-life care. The result was a home hospice during the first lockdown. Suspended within the chaos of medication and treatments were dance parties, episodes of Tiger King, and his father's many deadpan jokes. Leaning into his journalistic intuitions, Mitchell interviewed his father daily, making audio recordings of final talks, emotional goodbyes, and the unexpected laughter that filled his father's final days. Serving as a catalyst for fatherly affection, these interviews became an opportunity for emotional confession during the slowed-down time of a shuttered world, and reflect how far a family went in making a dying loved one feel safe at home.

Amytrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS or motor neurone disease) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that can cause profound suffering for both the patient and their family. Whilst new treatments for ALS are being developed, these are not curative and offer only the potential to slow its progression. Palliative care must therefore be integral to the clinical approach to the disease. Palliative Care in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: From diagnosis to bereavement reflects the wide scope of this care; it must cover not just the terminal phase, but support the patient and their family from the onset of the disease. Both the multidisciplinary palliative care team and the neurology team are essential in providing a high standard of care and allowing quality of life (both patient and carer) to be maintained. Clear guidelines are provided to address care throughout the disease process. Control of symptoms is covered alongside the psychosocial care of patients and their families. Case studies are used to emphasise the complexity of the care needs and involvement of the patient and family, culminating in discussion of bereavement. Different models of care are explored, and this new edition utilizes the increase in both the evidence-base and available literature on the subject. New topics discussed include complementary therapies, personal and family experiences of ALS, new genetics research, and updated guidelines for patient care, to ensure this new edition remains the essential guide to palliative care in ALS.

It was a low-level panic at first, but very quickly there were big changes taking place. Day by day, wards were being cleared to make way for Covid-positive patients. Things were getting worse by the day. For the first time in my nursing career, I felt scared. As a palliative care nurse, it is Kelly Critcher's job to look death in the eye - to save a patient while the fight can still be won, and confront life's end with grace and kindness when it can't. In early 2020, everything changed for nurses on the NHS front line. Working on Covid wards and the High Dependency Unit, Kelly spent the height of the coronavirus crisis at Northwick Park hospital - perhaps the UK hospital most deeply ravaged by the illness. She, and many others like her, battled tirelessly in a critical care unit pushed to breaking point, delivering the bad news and fighting the good fight, day-in, day-out, throughout the gravest test our health service has faced since its inception. Kelly's story weaves together her raw, emotional diaries from the COVID frontline with a broader reflection on the truths about a life spent caught between battling for her patients' lives and helping them face down death with courage and compassion. Bringing together the enormity of the last twelve months - and the scars it will leave - this is a book for our times.

Riveting in their emotional clarity and utterly jargon free, these 30 stories from real life penetrate how we grieve and how we can help those who grieve- whether the griever is oneself, someone we care about, or a client or patient. Lynne Dale Halamish, an internationally respected grief counsellor with more than 20 years' experience, and Doron Hermoni, a family physician, researcher, and educator, present vignettes from practice that show how death- lingering, unexpected, violent, or self-inflicted- and the loss of a relationship- to oneself or with a child, sibling, parent, mate, grandparent, or friend- give life to grief, together with the process by which each person fully encounters his or her grief. Each story is no more than two or three pages, and the authors follow each one with a short summary of its teachings and a selection of annotated recent references for those who wish to read more about a topic. Looked at in relief, the stories reveal a master grief counsellor at work.

Supportive Care for the Renal Patient Second Edition provides a comprehensive, evidence-based overview of supportive care for the nephrology patient. An international group of contributors emphasise the continuum of palliative care from the time of diagnosis through to end-of-life care and the issues surrounding withdrawal of dialysis. The book addresses the psychological impact of the disease, the importance of involving the patient in making decisions about their care, ethical considerations, the role of the family and the multidisciplinary team. This new edition includes two new chapters on conservative management of advanced kidney disease (AKD) and dialysis in the very elderly. The chapters covering non pain symptoms, advance care planning, quality of life, psychological and psychiatric consideration and end-of-life care have also be completely revised to include new evidence and current thinking. This book will be of particular interest to palliative care practitioners; nephrologists, who increasingly need to know more about palliative care; nurse practitioners, dialysis nurses, social workers, dieticians, and psychiatric consultants. ABOUT THE SUPPORTIVE CARE SERIES Supportive care is the multidisciplinary holistic care of patients with chronic and life-limiting illnesses and their families - from the time around diagnosis, through treatments aimed at cure or prolonging life, and into the phase currently acknowledged as palliative care. It involves recognising and caring for the side-effects of active therapies as well as patients' symptoms, co-morbidities, psychological, social and spiritual concerns. It also values the role of family carers and helps them in supporting the patient, as well as attending to their own special needs. Unlike traditional palliative care, which grew from the terminal care of cancer patients, supportive care is not restricted to dying patients nor to cancer. This series covers the support of patients with a variety of long-term conditions, who are currently largely managed by specialist medical teams in hospital and by primary care teams in community settings. Each volume therefore provides a practical guide to the supportive care of patients at all stages of illness. Series Editor: Sam H. Ahmedzai