Population-based end-of-life care

Abstract

This chapter describes the changing face of end-of-life care in the face of demographic changes and the need for a population-based approach in providing end-of-life care in a meaningful manner. Building on the major advances in palliative or end of life care across the world over recent decades, there now seems to be radical groundswell of change in this area, as we face the major challenge of meeting the needs the ageing population. This challenge, most noted in the developed nations, now places specific and seemingly overwhelming unprecedented demands on all our health and social care services. Some would argue that a new approach is needed, building on lessons learnt, to care for the rising numbers of people nearing the last stage of life within our population—in other words, a population approach to end-of-life care. Using examples from the Gold Standards Framework in the UK, the chapter explores the importance of enabling generalists to deliver high quality care across a population, citing a variety of examples and programmes promoting person-centred care at the end of life.