Better care at the end of life: we need to change the conversation

Far too many people are being denied their right to autonomous decision making at the end of their lives. This stubborn reality seems hard to shift, despite years of guidance supporting professionals to elicit and respect people’s wishes, and despite the best efforts of educators and campaigners to encourage better conversations about death and dying.This is evidenced by the thousands of phone calls and emails that the charity Compassion in Dying has received in recent years. The charity analysed these responses to better understand what gets in the way of doctors, nurses, or care home managers from following the wishes of a dying person.The report published recently makes for difficult reading.1 It finds that people do not understand that they need to write down their wishes for their end-of-life care in order to ensure these are followed. Relatives report that their loved ones were subjected to invasive treatments that they…
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