#68 Dying at home, what you need to know and how to be prepared - Recognising when someone might be in the last stages of life
04.09.23
#68 Dying at home, what you need to know and how to be prepared - Recognising when someone might be in the last stages of life
This is the first of a series of seven podcasts about End of Life Care, specifically towards the last days of life and when someone wishes to die at home. Rachel kindly agreed to make these with me and recreate some of the conversations I have had over so many years about dying at home, what you need to know and how to be prepared.
In this episode we talk about how to recognise when someone might be approaching the last stages of life and why this matters.
Dying at home, what you need to know and how to be prepared
1.Recognising when someone might be approaching the last stages of life and why this matter
2. What support is available to help look after a person who is dying at home
3. What equipment might be needed to help look after a person who is dying at home
4. Symptom control and medication as someone approaches the end of life at home
5.What changes are there as someone approaches the end of life?
6. What we need to do after a person has died at home
7. Changing plans, anticipatory grief and being prepared
Key messages
Recognising when a person is approaching the last stages of life is important for planning care.
Having plans in place helps a person’s wishes to be met
There are hard and soft tools to help us recognise when a person might be approaching the last stages of life
Diseases have a trajectory around which we can model care
Being aware of the changes can help plan future care
Episode takeaways
It is important to look at an overall picture of decline when assessing how close a person could be to dying
Identifying a person may be close to the end of life enables appropriate person centred care to be delivered
Identifying if a person is approaching the last stages of life can help make plans
Resource
Find out more about the Rockwood Frailty Scale
Access the Gold Standards Framework Proactive Identification Guidance
Access national guidance:End of life care for adults: service delivery NICE guideline [NG142]
Access national guidance: Care of dying adults in the last days of life NICE guideline [NG31]
Find out more about The Karnofsky Performance Scale Index
Find out more about the Supportive & Palliative Care Indicators Tool (SPICT™) SPICT
Find out more about Phases of illness
The Magnificent Midlife podcast Episode 132: Later life planning with Clare Fuller
Access Rachel’s work
Website:The Magnificent Midlife
Podcast: The Magnificent Midlife Podcast
Bio:
Rachel Lankester, founder of Magnificent Midlife
Rachel Lankester is the founder of Magnificent Midlife, an online hub celebrating and empowering women 40+. She's the author of Magnificent Midlife: Transform Your Middle Years, Menopause and Beyond and host of the Magnificent Midlife podcast. After a shocking early menopause diagnosis at 41, she scratched her own itch and created what she wasn't able to find to help herself. This includes 1-1 and group mentoring, courses and educational resources to help women vibrantly transition through the sometimes messy middle of life. She's also the founder of MenoClarity, an online information hub about menopause.
Clare Fuller, Advance Care Planning Advocate, Educator & Coach
Clare is a Registered Nurse with 30 years’ experience in End-of-Life Care (EoLC). Clare is an advocate for Advance Care Planning and founded www.speakforme.co.uk to help organisations to improve EoLC, provide professional education and raise public awareness about Advance Care Planning. Clare campaigns for proactive Advance Care Planning, hosts the podcast Conversations about Advance Care Planning and is a Lasting Power of Attorney Consultant.
Find out more about my Bespoke Consultancy
If you’d like to find out more about my work contact me.
What one thing will you do?
It would be great to share what resonated with you from this episode, what is the one thing you will do differently? Head to Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn to continue these important conversations.
Thanks to all my guests for working with me to share their knowledge, experience and stories about Advance Care Planning. I hope you enjoyed listening and have insights to take away; I love hearing your reflections on the series and look forward to reviews on Spotify where you can also subscribe to the series.
Clare
Important Conversations about Important Conversations.