5) Commit to promptly achieving the strategic action outlined in the National Adult Palliative Care Policy – “Enable people to stay in their preferred place of care as far as possible”. • Urgently address key workforce shortfalls to enable all appropriate supports and necessary staffing to be put in place. • All older people being cared for at home should have equitable access to core community health professionals including palliative care nurses, occupational therapists, public health nurses, physiotherapists and social workers. 6) Implement the Statutory Homecare Scheme which will enable people to stay in their own home for as long as possible, as per the Programme for Government. Awareness 7) Promote greater awareness of information, resources and supports that involve older people in the decisions that impact on their health, wellbeing and recognises their will and preferences. • Ongoing conversations around planning for future care decisions should be normalised as part of everyday interactions with health and social care professionals and not exclusively held within acute care settings (e.g. hospitals). Planning supports should be ‘age-friendly’ and tailored to the needs of the individual. • Initiatives that help broaden these conversations across society will help families to feel more prepared, involved and confident when the time comes to support an older person in making end-of-life care decisions. • Conversations and planning around potential future loss of capacity should be initiated/revisited at key times with older people e.g. at the time of a life-changing diagnosis. • Increase awareness and understanding of the Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Act 2015 (ADMA) which is the law that establishes a legal framework for supported decision-making in Ireland in important areas such as Enduring Power of Attorney and Advance Healthcare Directives (AHD). • The ADMA also enshrines people’s right to make legal AHD. A Register of AHD is essential to ensure that citizens can be confident that their expressed wishes are accessible when needed and wherever the place. This is currently not available in Ireland. The Minister for Health has the power to make regulations to provide for this Register and should give serious consideration to doing so. 8) Ensure free, accessible and age-friendly training and support opportunities are routinely made available to family carers. • Training resources should focus on supporting loved ones to care for an older person who is approaching end of life, should incorporate elements of peer support, and should be age-friendly in content and design.
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Experiences of Older People at End of Life 2025
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