Editorial: End of life care in dementia

Abstract

Although two thirds of people with dementia live in the community, a recent report from the Alzheimer's Society concluded that current health and social care systems are failing to support people with dementia and their families to continue to live at home, despite the fact that family carers of people with dementia save the UK over £10 million a year (Alzheimer's Society, 2007). If there are few examples of innovative care packages within dementia care, research evaluating such new approaches is even more limited (Robinson et al., 2005; Sampson et al., 2006). This section of the Dementia journal contains some examples of projects which have the potential to improve end of life care for people with dementia and their families.

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References

Alzheimer's Society. (2007). Dementia UK: The full report. London: Alzheimer's Society.

Department of Health (2009). Living well with dementia: A national strategy. 2009. Available from: http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/SocialCare/Deliveringadultsocialcare/Olderpeople/NationalDementiaStrategy/index.htm.

Robinson, L. , Hughes, J.C. , Daley, S. , Keady, J. , Ballard, C. , & Volicer, L. (2005). End-of-life care and dementia. Reviews in Clinical Gerontology, 15, 135-148.

Sampson, E.L. , Gould, V. , Lee, D. , & Blanchard, M. (2006). Differences in care received by patients with and without dementia who died during acute hospital admission: a retrospective case note study. Age and Ageing, 35, 187-189.