Providing insight into palliative and end of life care

Our new Insight into Practice – Palliative and End of Life Care for people with disability has been published online, to provide further guidance on an approach to care that focuses on quality of life.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines palliative care as an approach that prevents and relieves suffering through the early identification, correct assessment and treatment of pain and other problems, whether physical, psychosocial or spiritual.

Although palliative care if explicitly recognised as a human right, only 14 per cent of the general population who would benefit from palliative care receive it – with people with disability even less likely to receive it.

This insight provides further understanding of palliative and end of life care for people with disability and acknowledges the need for further research on identifying when clients with disability need palliative care and how best to provide it.

This includes the requirement for policies, procedures, guidelines and tools to help support workers and healthcare workers provide client-centred, evidence-based, excellent palliative care to people with disability.

You can read the full Insight into Practice online and view other Insights in the Research section of our website.