Chronic illness
-
The increasing numbers of individuals needing palliative services and changing the nature of these services bring about new challenges for the delivery and accessibility of timely and appropriate palliative care services. Socioeconomic factors are known to affect access but disease type is a factor which can negatively impact the availability of adequate palliative services. ⋯ My analysis centers on palliation for Parkinson's disease because it illustrates the difficulties of managing the chronic-palliative interface, and it also demonstrates how care is situated in an evolving network of professional and non-professional actors. I argue that insuring the availability of adequate palliative services entails negotiating the chronic-palliative interface, which, in turn, requires continued multi-disciplinary professional involvement as well as the integration and recognition of the care provided by family caregivers.
-
Supporting self-care for people with long-term conditions is an aim of UK health policy. As many with long-term conditions are older it is of interest to explore which self-care support interventions have positive impacts for this group. This review explores what types of intervention have been reported in the UK and their impact upon older people. ⋯ This review shows that self-care interventions have had positive effects for older participants but it remains unknown how best to support self-care in participants over 75, a group of people with long-term conditions who may have different needs.