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Conversations: creating choice in end of life care
When it comes to death the statistics are clear. We will all die.
So why don’t we talk about it?
End of Life Care is under significant pressure in Australia. Demand is rocketing, access is limited and the system is often too stressed to provide the quality we expect. Care choice is limited by age, diagnosis and geography.
A new report released by the Australian Centre for Health Research (ACHR), Conversations: Creating Choice in End of Life Care finds that the roadmap to reform of End of Life Care starts with one simple, but significant and cost-effective step – conversation.
REPORT KEY MESSAGES
WHAT:
It’s time to transform our culture so we shift from not talking about dying to talking about it. Through a whole community approach, it’s time to share the way we want to live at the end of our lives. And it’s time to communicate about the kind of care we want and don’t want for ourselves and our loved ones
WHY:
- 1. Currently, too many Australians experience pain and suffering in the final months and days of their lives, and die in a way they would not choose. These outcomes ripple out beyond the dying person to their families, loved ones, caregivers and communities.
- As a nation we are paying a high price for care we don’t want, in a place we don’t want it.
- Caring for the dying is a fundamental responsibility of all societies and good stewardship of national resources requires an evidence-based approach to meet the ever-increasing and insupportable demands on hospital facilities, health professionals and ineffective resource utilisation.
- End of Life Care has a low profile in Australia. It is not recognised as a public health concern, and we lack the national awareness and engagement programs evident in other countries. Our impressive global record of health promotion and public education is not being matched in the process of dying, death or bereavement.
- There is overwhelming recognition that open conversations about death, dying and bereavement play a fundamental role in the:
- Changing of attitudes towards death and dying
- Better delivery of person-centred choice in End of Life Care
- Increased uptake of advance care planning
- Quality of End of Life Care
- Availability of support for the bereaved, and the
- Long-term health and well-being of individuals and communities.
HOW:
The pathway to reform starts with one simple, inexpensive step – conversation.
Conversations increase public awareness that End of Life Care can be guided in ways that respond to patients’ choice.
ROADMAP TO ACTION
The report presents eight simple, cost effective recommendations to transform End of Life Care in Australia by creating choice through conversations.
THE AUSTRALIAN CENTRE FOR HEALTH RESEARCH
The Australian Centre for Health Research (ACHR) is an independent research institute specialising in evidence based analysis, knowledge transfer and advocacy to improve the quality and lower the costs of health, disability and aged care.
ACHR seeks to transform End of Life Care through a conventional research and practice development program, as well as innovative community awareness initiatives that help people have conversations about their end of life choices.
For ACHR, raising public awareness is regarded as just as vital as the policy and practice developments needed to address seemingly intractable problems in the care of the dying in Australia. ACHR is committed to encouraging people to talk about death and dying – in thousands of kitchens, living rooms, coffee shops and restaurants across the country.
