Family Caregiving and Palliative Care: Closing the Policy Gap

HEALTH AFFAIRS | Online – 2 July 2014 – In theory palliative care practice supports the principle of person and family centered care, which addresses the needs of both the recipient of care and his or her caregiver, promotes communication and shared decision-making as well as coordination and collaboration by health care delivery teams. While these concepts have been recognized and included in practice guidelines – for example, those established by the [U.S.] National Consensus Project on Palliative Care – they are often more an ideal than a reality. But the practice arena is far ahead of the policy world. Support for family caregivers has largely been absent from policy discussions of palliative care, which focus on professional, clinical, regulatory, and financial issues…read more

An article from Media Watch, compiled and annotated by Barry R. Ashpole (Ontario, Canada). More reports can be found at IPCRC.NET