| |
Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
 | |
|
| End-of-life care at long-term care facilities for the elderly in Japan | | Author(s) | Yoshihisa Hirakawa |
| Journal title | Hallym International Journal of Aging, vol 11, no 1, 2009 |
| Pages | pp 1-12 |
| Source | http://baywood.com |
| Keywords | Terminal care ; Nursing homes ; Care homes ; Social policy ; Japan ; Literature reviews. |
| Annotation | Japan's mortality rate has increased dramatically, and end-of-life care for older people is bound to become an issue of serious concern in Japan. While older people often spend the last moments of their lives at hospitals, most generally prefer to remain at home during the last part of life. However, there has been little variation in the number of hospital beds available and the wish to die at home may for some patients be unrealistic; as a result, a growing number are expected to die at long-term care facilities. In order to provide adequate palliative care, long-term care facilities must typically operate with the following setbacks: lack of 24-hour medical personnel, limited availability of medical treatment, high prevalence of dementia, wide variety of resident prognosis, and heavy reliance on facility staff to provide care. The purpose of this review is to summarize the studies that clarify current end-of-life care policies and practices at long-term care facilities in Japan, aiming at defining the necessary conditions for optimal end-of-life care provision at long-term care facilities for elders. Briefly examined are staff education, cooperation with acute care hospitals, as well as end-of-life related discussions with residents and families to propose ways to enhance end-of-life care for long-term care facility residents. (KJ/RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-090806210 A |
| Classmark | LV: LHB: KW: TM2: 7DT: 64A |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
|
| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
| |
|