End of life health
Coping with a terminal illness
This article provides advice on what to do if you need to talk to someone about your bad news, condition or how you are feeling.
End of life issues
This article explains some of the treatments that end-of-life patient may need, including surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
Grief before death
Find out how to cope with the news that someone you care for has a terminal illness.
Organ and tissue donation
It's important that you make decisions in relation to organ donation. We have put together a list of questions to help you find answers and address wo...
Palliative care
Palliative care is holistic care that aims to improve the quality of life of people who are dying. Read about the range of services available.
Start talking about your illness
Talking with your loved ones about your illness isn't always easy. Start a conversation with someone close to you by following these tips.
Need more information?
These trusted information partners have more on this topic.
Found 176 results
End of life | Redkite
As you come to the end of your life, there are some practical decisions to be made. You might want to be involved in these decisions but it’s up to you.
Read more on Redkite website
End of Life Symptoms
Care of the dying patient involves preparing for and anticipatory management of predictable symptoms, ensuring the provision of excellent nursing care, and planning for problems related to the specific setting of care
Read more on CareSearch website
End of life | Redkite
Redkite is an Australian cancer charity that supports children and young people with cancer (024 years) and their families. We provide essential support from the moment of diagnosis until after treatment finishes, including financial assistance, information and counselling, and education and career support.If cancer treatment doesn't work, questions like where to die or what type of care you want are serious issues to consider. You might also want to think about some of the more personal ways to use your time.
Read more on Redkite website
End-of-Life Care | Safety and Quality
Read more on Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care website
Caring for Yourself
People on their end-of-life journey don't travel this road alone
Read more on CareSearch website
Dyspnoea
Dyspnoea is a subjective experience and reported difficulty may or may not relate to oxygen saturation levels. It is a symptom commonly experienced at the end of life and needs to be considered when planning care for residnets at the end of life.
Read more on CareSearch website
Alzheimer's Australia | Legal planning and dementia
Alzheimer's Australia has a range of resources on legal planning and end of life planning.
Read more on Alzheimer's Australia website
EOL Care Pathways
Care pathways for the dying have been developed as a model to improve the end-of-life care of all patients.
Read more on CareSearch website
Allied Health Professionals Research Projects
Mental health social workers and palliative and end-of-life care. The concerns of social work, both broadly and in the field of palliative and end-of-life care, include issues of individual personality, vulnerability and resilience, family functioning, personal relationships, strengths and stressors, support networks, culture, community, class, ethnicity and gender.
Read more on CareSearch website
Professional Boundaries
Working closely with patients at the end-of-life can be very rewarding, but it can also bring challenges for health professionals. This is especially true in end-of-life care where patients and families are in crisis. During this time, when therapeutic relationships are developing, the line between a professional and personal relationship can become blurred.
Read more on CareSearch website
Found 30 results
Home-based end-of-life care | Cochrane
A number of countries have invested in health services to provide care at home to people with a terminal illness who wish to die at home. The preferences of the general public and people with a terminal illness seem to support this, as most people indicate that they would prefer to receive end-of-life care at home.
Read more on Cochrane (Australasian Centre) website
Sedation medication for relieving symptoms at the end of life | Cochrane
People with diseases that are not curable may have a variety of symptoms at the end of life. These symptoms can include confusion (delirium), anxiety, restlessness, breathlessness (dyspnoea), pain, vomiting, and distress. Medicines that reduce consciousness (sedatives) may help relieve these symptoms when people are close to death.
Read more on Cochrane (Australasian Centre) website
End-of-life care pathways for the dying | Cochrane
Read more on Cochrane (Australasian Centre) website
Opioids for treating breathlessness at the end of life | Cochrane
People with lung disease may experience breathlessness. Initial treatments should focus on the underlying causes of breathlessness. However, as the disease progresses, it may be better to focus on treating the symptoms. As well as standard care, opioids (e.g. morphine, given either by mouth, by nebuliser, or injected) may help relieve these symptoms. However, opioids also have side effects, such as drowsiness, constipation, nausea (feeling sick), and vomiting.
Read more on Cochrane (Australasian Centre) website
Interventions for supporting family and friends of patients at the end of life | Cochrane
Family and friends are often central to the care of patients at the end of life. While providing such informal care can generate strong positive emotions, caring can be extremely stressful both mentally and physically. Support strategies are being developed. These can involve, for example, advice on caring and practical support. However, it is unclear if these strategies are beneficial.
Read more on Cochrane (Australasian Centre) website
Drug therapy for anxiety in palliative care | Cochrane
Anxiety is a common symptom in patients near the end of life. As with other areas of palliative care, the majority of available literature pertaining to drug therapy for anxiety is based on the reporting of anecdotes. A search of the international literature for randomised clinical trials in the area of drug therapy for symptoms of anxiety in palliative care yielded no results. As a consequence, it is not possible to assess the effectiveness of treatment options. It is hoped that this review will motivate future research in this area.
Read more on Cochrane (Australasian Centre) website
Advance treatment directives for people with severe mental illness | Cochrane
An advance treatment directive is a document that specifies a persons future preferences for treatment, should he or she lose the mental ability to make treatment decisions (lose capacity). They have traditionally been used to stipulate treatment in end-of-life situations. However, people with mental health problems can also have periods where they are unable to make treatment decisions, and an advance statement could help with choosing suitable medication, saying who should look after children and specifying choices in other areas of their life and treatment.
Read more on Cochrane (Australasian Centre) website
Early referral to a specialist doctor for people with kidney disease | Cochrane
Some degree of kidney failure affects about 15% to 25% of people and is a silent disease that creeps up on an individual with symptoms and signs developing only very late. When kidney failure becomes end-stage, life supporting therapy in the form of dialysis or transplantation is the only option available for the patient. This form of therapy is very expensive and highly intrusive into the patients' life. Measures to prevent progression to this terminal stage are of great importance to prevent this catastrophe.
Read more on Cochrane (Australasian Centre) website
Interventions to improve the continuity of care in the follow-up of patients with cancer | Cochrane
Cancer is a very complex disease characterised by varying clinical features and treatment phases. The continuum of cancer care includes risk assessment, primary prevention, screening, detection, diagnosis, treatment, survivorship, and end-of-life care. Continuity of care is defined as how one patient experiences care over time, as coherent and linked, and is the result of good information flow, good interpersonal skills, and good coordination of care. The objectives of this review were to classify, describe and determine the effectiveness of interventions tested in the literature to improve continuity of care in the follow-up of patients with cancer.
Read more on Cochrane (Australasian Centre) website
Spiritual and religious interventions for adults in the latter stage of a disease | Cochrane
Being ill and near to the end of life can raise questions such as "Why me? Why now?". The experience may start or increase thoughts of a spiritual or religious nature. Some research has found that having spiritual or religious awareness, or both, may help a person cope with disease and dying. We conducted our review through searches for studies that were randomised controlled trials. We only included such studies if they evaluated an intervention that involved a spiritual or religious aspect, such as prayer and meditation, and aimed to support adults in the terminal phase of a disease. We found five studies. In total, the studies involved 1130 participants. Two studies evaluated meditation. Three evaluated the work of a palliative care team that involved physicians, nurses and chaplains. Studies compared those who received the intervention with those who did not. Studies evaluated the interventions in various ways including whether it helped in any way a person's quality of life.
Read more on Cochrane (Australasian Centre) website
