{"id":998,"date":"2017-02-13T11:51:48","date_gmt":"2017-02-13T11:51:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/internationalforum.bmj.com\/kuala-lumpur\/?p=998"},"modified":"2017-08-21T10:05:04","modified_gmt":"2017-08-21T10:05:04","slug":"d1-what-is-a-good-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/internationalforum.bmj.com\/kuala-lumpur\/2017\/02\/13\/d1-what-is-a-good-death\/","title":{"rendered":"D1: What is a good death?"},"content":{"rendered":"Saturday, 26th August<\/strong>
11:00-12:15<\/strong>

This panel session will take perspectives from three different countries and explore how to give the best care for patients approaching the end of life. End of life care is a neglected aspect of care across the world, including the Asian countries. There is a need to address how to provide good care to ensure a \u201cGood Death and to ensure good discussion and communication between all parties (patients, family and healthcare professionals) to ensure a \u201cGood death\u201d for everyone.

Good care to ensure a \u201cGood Death\u201d\u00a0<\/strong>

Death is an inescapable fact of life that every living being has to experience and it affects all ages from conception to the elderly. In some\u00a0instances\u00a0this may happen suddenly and in other situations, it may be a more foreseeable end. Efforts have been made in\u00a0medical\u00a0literature to define what a good death is \u2013 although no single encompassing definition has been widely adopted. Overlapping themes are frequently identified such as symptom management, the relief of suffering, open communication, care planning, maintaining dignity, spiritual peace, relationship closure, and life completion\/fulfilment. Not all deaths may be\u00a0good\u00a0however, and what is good for one may not be the same for another.

Different perspectives of good may be held by patients, their families, and the multidisciplinary team delivering care. Rather than attempting to deliver a standard universal approach to achieving a good death, seeking to individualise and tailor care to the needs of all parties is\u00a0potentially\u00a0of greater worth.Dying is a highly personal journey filled with meaning and opportunity for all affected, and enhancing our capacity to deliver the best care possible facilitates the greatest likelihood of addressing the needs of\u00a0patient, their families as well as the caring team.

\u201cEnd-of-Life Conversations\u201d<\/strong>

We \u2013 healthcare professionals \u2013 are good at healing patients, but often we are not comfortable or well trained to handle end-of-life situations. While aware our patient is approaching the end of his\/her life, beginning an appropriate conversation and care is a challenge. The end-of-life care conversation is everyone\u2019s business \u2013 healthcare professionals, patient and family members. For healthcare professionals, it is not feasible nor entirely necessary to leave it just to the palliative care specialists, as death is common. There is a real need to learn and work with palliative care specialists to provide a good death for our patients. There are barriers and difficulties (perceived and real) to \u201cend of life\u201d care and conversations: what, when, who, how. There are many levels of end-of-life-care conversations, which are often inadequate:

1. \u00a0 \u00a0Between healthcare professionals (e.g. doctors, nurses etc.)

2. \u00a0 \u00a0With other professionals (social workers, religious leaders supporting the patient\/family)

3. \u00a0 \u00a0Between healthcare professionals and the patient and family

4. \u00a0 \u00a0Between the patient and family

5. \u00a0 \u00a0Social culture of Death

Lui Siu Fai<\/a>, Clinical Professional Consultant, Division of Health System, Policy and Management, The Jockey Club, School of Public Health and Primary Care, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, HKSAR, Hong Kong
Yingwei Wang<\/a>, Director General in Health Promotion Administration, MOHW Taiwan
Chee Loong Lam<\/a>, Senior Lecturer and Palliative Care Physician, University Malaya; Malaysia","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Saturday, 26th August11:00-12:15This panel session will take perspectives from three different countries and explore how to give the best care for patients approaching the end of life. End of life care is a neglected aspect of care across the world, including the Asian countries. There is a need to address how to provide good care […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/internationalforum.bmj.com\/kuala-lumpur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/internationalforum.bmj.com\/kuala-lumpur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/internationalforum.bmj.com\/kuala-lumpur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/internationalforum.bmj.com\/kuala-lumpur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/internationalforum.bmj.com\/kuala-lumpur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/internationalforum.bmj.com\/kuala-lumpur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/998\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/internationalforum.bmj.com\/kuala-lumpur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/internationalforum.bmj.com\/kuala-lumpur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/internationalforum.bmj.com\/kuala-lumpur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}