Informal care networks’ views of palliative care services : help or hindrance?

Most people indicate their preference to die at home; however, in the developed world, most die in hospital. Dying at home requires complex factors to be in place in health services and informal networks of care to successfully provide support. This study examines the ways health systems, services, and individual health care professionals influence care at home at the end of life. Three principles guide the reorientation of health services and enable their transition from hindrance to help: re-evaluation of organizational values, recognition of the primacy of caring networks, and realignment of the inherent paternalism in health care provision.