The Place and Future of Social Work in Palliative Care Services in Turkey: State of the Art

This chapter explores the history of volunteers in the founding and development of United Kingdom (UK) hospice services. It considers the changing role and influences of volunteering on services at different stages of development. Evidence suggests that voluntary sector hospice and palliative care services are dependent on volunteers for the range and quality of services delivered. Within such services, volunteer trustees carry significant responsibility for the strategic direction of the organiszation. Others are engaged in diverse roles ranging from the direct support of patient and families to public education and fundraising. The scope of these different roles is explored before considering the range of management models and approaches to training. This chapter also considers the direct and indirect impact on volunteering of changing palliative care, societal, political, and legislative contexts. It concludes by exploring how and why the sector is changing in the UK and considering the growing autonomy of volunteers within the sector.

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Diagnosis, assessment, and treatment of depression in advanced disease

10.1093/oso/9780198806677.003.0009 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Matthew Hotopf

Keyword(s):

Palliative Care ◽

Advanced Disease ◽

Antidepressant Treatment ◽

Population Level ◽

Care Staff ◽

Care Services ◽

Treatment Of Depression ◽

Assessment And Treatment ◽

Palliative Care Services ◽

Key Issues

Depression in palliative care is common, under-recognised and has significant impacts for sufferers. There are effective treatments but often a shortage of staff to provide them. This chapter sets out a number of key issues to consider when assessing and treating individual patients and considers the way in which palliative care services can innovate to provide a population level response to depression. Palliative care staff can be trained to deliver basic depression care and follow simple protocols to initiate, monitor and adjust antidepressant treatment. These approaches have been tested in trials in cancer care but the challenge is to take these approaches from research trials conducted in centres of excellence with good resources, to other settings.

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Reluctance to Accept Palliative Care and Recommendations for Improvement: Findings From Semi-Structured Interviews With Patients and Caregivers

American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine® ◽

10.1177/10499091211012605 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 104990912110126

Author(s):

Valeria Cardenas ◽

Anna Rahman ◽

Yujun Zhu ◽

Susan Enguidanos

Keyword(s):

Palliative Care ◽

Controlled Trial ◽

Insurance Coverage ◽

Healthcare Providers ◽

Health Condition ◽

Insurance Companies ◽

Structured Interviews ◽

Care Services ◽

Home Based ◽

Palliative Care Services

Background: Despite some insurance plans now paying for home-based palliative care, recent reports have suggested that insurance coverage for palliative care may be insufficient in expanding patient access to home-based palliative care. Aim: To identify patients’ and caregivers’ perceived barriers to home-based palliative care and their recommendations for overcoming these barriers. Design: We conducted a qualitative study using semi-structured individual interviews. Our interview protocol elicited participants’ perspectives on home-based palliative care services; positive and negative aspects of the palliative program explanation; and suggestions for improving messaging around home-based palliative care. Setting/Participants: Twenty-five participants (patients, proxies, and their caregivers) who were eligible for a randomized controlled trial of home-based palliative care were interviewed by telephone. Results: Themes related to home-based palliative care referral barriers included reluctance to have home visits, enrollment timing, lack of palliative care knowledge, misconceptions about palliative care, and patients’ self-perceived health condition. Themes related to recommendations for overcoming these obstacles included ensuring that palliative care referrals come from healthcare providers or insurance companies and presenting palliative care services more clearly. Conclusion: Findings reinforce the need for additional palliative care education among patients with serious illness (and their caregivers) and the importance of delivering palliative care information and referrals from trusted sources.

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