OBJECTIVE Collaboration between psychiatry and palliative medicine has the potential to enhance the quality of medical practice. The integration between palliative care and psychiatry has been attempted only in discrete medical settings and is not yet firmly established as an institution. Our objective was to determine the availability and degree of integration between psychiatric consultation-...

Palliative care focuses on relieving suffering in patients with serious illness. Patients who receive palliative care have better control of distressing symptoms, are less likely to suffer from depression and have a better quality of life. Although palliative care has become an integral component of health care systems in many developed countries it has yet to be established in most developing ...

BACKGROUND The evolution of the provision of palliative care specialised services is important for planning and evaluation. AIM To examine the development between 2005 and 2012 of three specialised palliative care services across the World Health Organization European Region - home care teams, hospital support teams and inpatient palliative care services. DESIGN AND SETTING Data were extrac...

BACKGROUND Pharmacists are among the most accessible health care professionals in the community, yet are often not involved in community palliative care teams. OBJECTIVE We investigated community pharmacists' attitudes, beliefs, feelings, and knowledge about palliative care as a first step towards determining how best to facilitate the inclusion of community pharmacists on the palliative care...

BACKGROUND Palliative care has been identified by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a critical policy element for the relief of suffering, yet palliative care policy receives minimal attention in mainstream U.S. public health journals, conferences, or textbooks. In the '90s, documentation of the lack of attention to end-of-life and palliative care in medical and nursing curricula led to co...

BACKGROUND Little is known about how GPs determine whether and when patients need palliative care. Little research has been done regarding the assumption underpinning Lynn and Adamson's model that palliative care may start early in the course of the disease. This study was conducted to explore how GPs identify a need for palliative care in patients. METHODS A qualitative interview study was p...

Despite significant advances in understanding the benefits of early integration of palliative care with disease management, many people living with a chronic life-threatening illness either do not receive any palliative care service or receive services only in the last phase of their illness. In this article, I explore some of the reasons for failure to provide palliative care services and reco...

In this special issue of Progress in Palliative Care we explore the nexus between palliative care and paramedicine by presenting important initiatives being undertaken Australia, New Zealand, th...

Nausea and vomiting in patients with advanced disease are debilitating symptoms that reduce the quality of life for patients, their families and carers. These symptoms are common in patients with both malignant and non-malignant disease. Palliative care intervention has been shown to improve them significantly, thereby improving patient experience of end-of-life care. This article discusses sys...