Palliative Care for Care Homes

Introduction

Care home workers increasingly work with people nearing the end of their lives, including people with medically complex conditions. However, many do not have a medical background and find that practical advice on how to address these people's very specific needs is scarce.

In this book, Christine Reddall draws on almost four decades of nursing experience to create a clear and easy-to-read handbook primarily for workers caring for the dying in care homes, but which will also be of interest to family members caring for relatives with life-threatening conditions.

Purpose of the Book

This is a resource book to provide information on palliative care. It is designed primarily to help carers who work in care homes of all categories. To my knowledge, this is the first book written solely for carers working in care homes that addresses the issues of caring for someone with palliative care needs.

However, people with whom I have spoken to about this book, or who have read parts of it, have all said that it would also be a helpful resource to non-professional family carers who care for a family member in their own home.

Style and Approach

The style of this book is designed to be readable by all levels of carers, and I have endeavoured to keep the language and text as non-medical as possible. I have tried to put myself in the shoes of carers, especially those without medical training, and think of what they want to know when caring for someone with a life threatening illness.

- Christine Reddall in her Preface.