Palliative care for end stage dementia : a discussion of the implications for education of health professionals

The increasing burden of chronic disease demands that palliative care clinicians address the needs of patients with non-malignant disease. This discussion document seeks to address some of the challenges to providing palliative care for end-stage dementia (ESD) and the need for skill enhancement in key providers of care. In spite of the intent, there is an apparent lack of appropriate, co-ordinated and comprehensive palliative care available for these individuals and their families. There is an absence of well-articulated models to assist health care providers of ESD clients. It would appear that the development and evaluation of guidelines, implementation of education programs and collaborative associations between palliative and aged-care providers of care are key strategies to facilitate palliative care for ESD clients.