Extending Palliative Care Beyond Cancer

Palliative care has not traditionally been associated with diseases other than cancer. The Irish Hospice Foundation’s Palliative Care for All Programme provides support, direction and guidance to those working with patients with life limiting diseases other than cancer.

The need to extend palliative care to diseases such as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disorder (COPD), Heart Failure and Dementia is increasingly acknowledged. There has been an overall lack of direction when it comes to providing palliative care within existing disease management frameworks for people with these and other life limiting illnesses.

Palliative Care for All Report

The Palliative Care for All programme emerged from a joint study; Extending Access, completed by the IHF and the HSE in 2008.

With an initial emphasis on dementia, COPD and heart failure, the study examined palliative care needs of people with life-limiting illnesses other than cancer to identify how palliative care could be applied to these patient groups in Ireland.

Download the full report (2008) HERE

Summary Palliative Care for All – Key Messages Booklet 

Action research & other initiatives

The Palliative Care for All report highlighted that palliative care principles need to be embedded within ALL disease frameworks.  The following initiatives have resulted from this programme:

• Action research/development projects supporting the introduction of a palliative approach in the management of  heart failure; advanced respiratory disease; Advancing neurological illness and for those with dementia were implemented

• Exploratory work with patient advocacy and voluntary groups such as the  Alzheimer Society of Ireland  on ways to introduce palliative care principles for constituents
• A paper by the Cystic Fibrosis Association of Ireland and Irish Hospice Foundation on end-of-life care for CF patients – available here 
• Our Nurses for Night Care service which is available for people with diseases other than cancer who wish to die at home. IHF provides funding to the Irish Cancer Society to extend its night nursing service to patients with other life-limiting conditions
• Initiation of discussion on the palliative care needs of  vulnerable sections of society, such as those with learning difficulties, mental health issues and the homeless.
• The report of a meeting held May 2017 building on work carried out to date about addressing palliative care for people with illnesses other than cancer is available here. Potential next steps are outlined in this report.

_{Updated 07/12/2017}