Abstract
Introduction: In France, the government's plan to combat Alzheimer's disease takes into consideration mostly the beginnings of the disease; it does not deal with the sufferers’ end of life. For this pathology, the very idea of a palliative care phase and its definition are not straightforward. Method: The object of this qualitative study was to clarify this idea through a series of interviews with 44 professionals. Results: The study describes three successive phases in the disease trajectory, revealed by changes in the logic of care: the stimulation phase, the chronic palliative care phase, and the terminal palliative phase. Conclusion: Alzheimer's disease has a specific phase of chronic palliative care. It presents, for professionals, several types of problems related to communication, pain, and feeding.
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