Older people are too often excluded from palliative care – We voiced our concern on World Palliative Care Day

Palliative care refers to the support provided to relieve the physical, psychological, social and existential pain and distress facing anyone with a health condition that puts their lives at risk.

Traditionally, palliative care is associated with people with specific conditions – most often cancer. This widespread misconception constitutes a barrier for society to accept palliative care and for public policies to facilitate its delivery. Older people are among the individuals that suffer the most from the misconceptions linked to palliative care. Many older persons die in pain and distress because care professionals and their social environment do not facilitate the access to that type of care.

On the occasion of the World Hospice and Palliative Care day, last 12 October, we joined the world campaign in the frame of our project InAdvance. We shared key messages around older people’s access via a series of visuals in social media.

We reminded that palliative care is critical for wellbeing and dignity and we highlighted that policymakers can do more to ensure a better access to palliative care for older people.

In the framework of InAdvance, we will produce, by 2023, evidence-based recommendations on how to facilitate early and timely access to palliative care.

You can access the campaign in Twitter using the hashtags #MyCareMyRight and #whpcd19

For more information, you can visit the website of InAdvance.