More palliative care training for care staff
Ninety per cent of care professionals have indicated additional training on palliative care and dementia would be beneficial. The figure emerges from a new Alzheimer’s Australia survey report titled End of Life Care for People with Dementia.
Although the survey showed 75% of care professionals indicated that people with dementia could access palliative care services within their care setting, more than 40% of care professionals said they had received no training on the assessment of pain in people with dementia.
Anecdotal reports indicated that care professionals were, at times, reluctant to use medications, such as morphine, over fear that they may hasten the death of the person they are caring for.
The report, End of Life Care for People with Dementia, stated legally, people have the right to adequate pain control, even if it has a secondary effect of hastening death.
Consistent with previous reports, 27% of care professionals did not think adequate pain control (if it might also hasten death) was a legal choice for people in Australia, or were unsure.
To better document the experience of consumers and care professionals, Alzheimer’s Australia, with the support from Bupa Health Foundation, commissioned Piazza Research to conduct a national survey of care professionals and family carers.
Two online surveys were used to collect data from care professionals and family carers. A total of 783 complete responses were received from care professionals, including registered nurses, general practitioners, specialists, enrolled nurses and direct care workers. More than 230 complete responses were received from family carers.
Access to appropriate end of life care for older people in Australia had been identified as a priority for consumers and policy makers, particularly in the Productivity Commission report titled Caring for Older Australians.
In the majority of cases, both family carers and care professionals indicated that the wishes of people with dementia were adhered to.
The report revealed that unfortunately a minority of cases exist where this is not happening, with 20% of family carers feeling dissatisfied with adherence to the wishes of the person with dementia, and more than 30% of care professionals experiencing a situation where they were unable to follow the end of life care wishes of a person with dementia.
Even when care wishes were documented, such as in advance care plans, there were still reported difficulties with adhering to the wishes of the person with dementia.
There was a consensus among care professionals of the importance of documenting end of life care wishes, with 96% indicating that end of life care wishes should be documented either before diagnosis or soon after diagnosis.
Read more findings of the report End of Life Care for People with Dementia.
