Palliative and End of Life Care: A Public Health Approach

Whilst the concept of palliative care is now more widely recognised across the world, as a service-led provision, it is still only accessed by the minority. Everyone benefits from end-of-life care, most often the support provided by family, friends, and communities. As our global population ages and more people live with chronic and life-limiting illness, death, dying, loss, and caregiving affects us all. Good care at the end of life is a basic human right and an essential component of health and social care systems but following a global pandemic, ongoing conflicts and increasing crises across the world, health and social care systems are struggling to rebuild. Nowhere is this more evident than at the end of life with growing concerns over the quality of care at the end of life and sustainability of the care workforce. A public health approach to palliative and end of life care acknowledges the value of community participation and recognises that rebuilding systems of care will only be achieved by working with communities rather than attempting to build it for them. Palliative care aims to put people at the centre of care, considering their values, preferences and needs, as an expert of their own experience and consider the needs of those close to them. The person with advanced illness and their family become equal partners not only in the planning of their care and support at the end of life, but also in the design and delivery of care. Recognising end of life care as a public-health concern can help to identify the structural and social determinants of health affecting health inequalities for disadvantaged populations and those who care for them. Through integration and collaboration, health and social care systems can work with communities to understand and improve the experience and quality of end-of-life care and support each other to ensure equality of access to appropriate care when and where people need it, diversity of provision and inclusion of individuals’ preferences and needs.The goal of this Research Topic is to present a collection of papers that address topics related to the experiences of palliative and end of life care among people who are providing it and those who are receiving it, its impact on quality of life and other outcomes, and the challenges faced by patients, families, communities, and care systems.We are particularly interested in papers that report a public health approach to the care of the dying and bereaved including citizen-led projects and community driven interventions. Original research papers, evidence-based reviews, methodological papers, brief reports, and commentaries are welcome to this issue. Topics of interest include:· Experience of palliative and end of life care for patients with all conditions including cancer and non-cancer conditions. · Experience of palliative and end of life care from the perspectives of family caregivers, or health professionals and communities.· Palliative and end of life care for older people including patients with dementia and their caregivers. · The impact of palliative and end of life care on quality of life and other outcomes across all settings (hospitals, hospices, community-based settings, voluntary sector). · Palliative care development and provision in a global context, particularly in low- and middle-income countries where resources are limited. · New approaches to symptom assessment and management in palliative and end of life care.· Issues of inequities in palliative and end-of-life care and structural inequalities impacting on the access, delivery and quality of palliative and end of life care. · Public-health partnerships to improve palliative and end of life and bereavement support. · Person-centred palliative and end of life care. Topic editors: Ping Guo, Cara Bailey Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/79279/palliative-and-end-of-life-care-a-public-health-approach