Introduction and Scope of the Problem Palliative care and hospice services have evolved and matured mostly in urban areas alongside robust health infrastructures, with highly trained specialists and teams and other needed resources. Yet, nearly half of the world’s population…
Introduction and Scope of the Problem By 2030, an estimated 73.1 million people in the United States, 21% of the population, will be over the age of 65. By 2034, older adults will outnumber children for the first time in…
Introduction and Scope of the Problem Ambulatory palliative care is palliative care provided to outpatients in clinic settings. In these models of care, patients may come to a designated palliative care clinic, or palliative care clinicians may colocate or be…
Introduction and Scope of the Problem Nursing homes, considered for this chapter to be synonymous with skilled nursing facilities, exist to support people with some combination of complex medical illness and functional and/or cognitive disabilities. While people most commonly enter…
Introduction and Scope of the Problem Now and for the foreseeable future, hospitals remain at the center of health care in mid- to high-income nations. In the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, 28% of all health care…
Introduction and Scope of the Problem Grief is a strong and sometimes overwhelming emotion. Grief is the normal reaction to loss and a universal human experience—individual and personal—creating a unique combination of emotional, psychosocial, physical, spiritual, and existential responses. Grief…
Introduction and Scope of the Problem Caregivers provide on a daily basis assistance with one or more activities of daily living for a person who is older, sick, or disabled. Care recipients are people with serious illnesses who have difficulty…
Introduction and Scope of the Problem Caregivers play a key role in supporting both individuals living with serious illness and those at the end of life. People are living longer with serious illness and multiple chronic illnesses: of every 10…
Introduction Much of the initial growth of palliative care in the United States has been driven by the value to hospitals of the care provided by inpatient palliative care consultation teams. While the financial case for outpatient palliative care is…
Introduction and Scope of the Problem The case for financial support by hospitals of palliative care programs is linked to the quality of care provided, the quantity of patients receiving care, and the extent to which services improve care outcomes.…