Skip to main content

Palliative and End of Life Care for Dementia Patients in the Emergency Department

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
  • 1479 Accesses

Abstract

In the United Kingdom (UK), 160,000 people with dementia die every year [1], and 40% of these will die in hospital [2]. Given the increase in prevalence of dementia in the UK, it is clear that patients with dementia who have palliative care needs will be seen with increasing frequency in emergency departments. Caring for this group at the end of life can be complex and is often poorly managed (see Death and Dying: Barriers to Care (2014), ‘The death and dying phase of dementia remains the forgotten aspect of what has been referred to as a silent epidemic’) [3].

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

References

  1. Alzheimer’s Society (2012) My life until the end: dying well with dementia. Alzheimer’s Society, London

    Google Scholar 

  2. Sleeman KE, Ho YK, Verne J, Gao W, Higginson IJ (2014) Reversal of English trend towards hospital death in dementia: a population-based study of place of death and associated individual and regional factors, 2001–2010. BMC Neurol 14:59. http://tiny.cc/dementia67

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Alzheimer’s Society, Marie Curie Cancer Care (2014) Living and dying with dementia in England: barriers to care. Marie Curie Cancer Care, London

    Google Scholar 

  4. Harris D (2007) Forget-me-not: palliative care for people with dementia. Postgrad Med J 83(980):362–366. http://tiny.cc/dementia53

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (2011) Care and compassion? Report of the Health Service Ombudsman on ten investigations into NHS care of older people. The Stationary Office, London

    Google Scholar 

  6. Alzheimer’s Disease International (2010) World report. Alzheimer’s Disease International, London

    Google Scholar 

  7. Sachs GA, Shega JW, Cox-Hayley D (2004) Barriers to excellent end-of-life care for patients with dementia. J Gen Int Med 19(10):1057–1063

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. National Gold Standards Framework Centre for End of Life Care (2011) Prognostic indicator guidance (PIG). www.goldstandardsframework.org.uk

  9. Mental Capacity Act 2005 Code of Practice (2007) Department for Constitutional Affairs. The Stationary Office, London

    Google Scholar 

  10. British Medical Association (2008) Mental capacity act toolkit. British Medical Association, London. www.bma.org.uk

    Google Scholar 

  11. Lord K, White N, Scott S, Sampson EL (2013) The behaviour and pain (bepaid) study: dementia patients who die in the Acute Hospital. http://tiny.cc/dementia87

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Candy B, Jones L, Sampson EL (2009) Enteral tube feeding for older people with advanced dementia. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 15:CD007209. http://tiny.cc/dementia89

    Google Scholar 

  13. Evers MM, Purohit D, Perl D, Khan K, Marin DB (2002) Palliative and aggressive end-of-life care for patients with dementia. Psychiatr Serv 53(5):609–613

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Dening KH, Jones L, Sampson EL (2013) Preferences for end-of-life care: a nominal group study of people with dementia and their family carers. Palliat Med 27:409–417

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Mangset M, Erling Dahl T, Forde R, Bruun Wyller T (2008) We’re just sick people, nothing else: factors contribution to elderly stroke patients’ satisfaction with rehabilitation. Clin Rehabil 22:825–835

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jo James .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

James, J. (2018). Palliative and End of Life Care for Dementia Patients in the Emergency Department. In: Nickel, C., Bellou, A., Conroy, S. (eds) Geriatric Emergency Medicine. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-19318-2_25

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-19318-2_25

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-19317-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-19318-2

  • eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics