According to a survey of more than 1,200 doctors and nurses surveyed across Canada, seriously ill, hospitalized Canadians are increasingly receiving aggressive, invasive and futile care at end of life because patients and families cannot accept that they are dying. In a story published in The Vancouver Sun, the survey revealed that unrealistic expectations about life-prolonging treatments and disagreements among family members are impeding crucial discussions around the use — or not — of CPR, artificial ventilators, tube-feeding and other interventions. “If we don’t have these conversations, there is a chance of patients receiving care that in the end is going to inflict more suffering than help,” said Dr. John You in the story, lead author of the study and an associate professor of medicine and clinical epidemiology and biostatistics with McMaster University’s Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine in Hamilton. Victoria-based physician David Attwell who has led the development of the Doctors of B.C.’s advance care planning policy, said that it’s important for people to have those conversations long before crises happen. “One of the biggest problems that people have is talking about death and dying. It’s not just patients and families. It’s also physicians.” “We’re in the business of making people healthy and giving them hope, and so a lot of people — a lot of physicians — have fear that they’ll take away a patients’ hope if they bring up the whole idea of death and dying,” said Attwell. One of the agencies that United Way supports is the Nidus Personal Planning and Resource Registry. Nidus helps people with personal planning to address all areas of life – health care, personal care, legal affairs, and financial affairs. A chapter of United Way’s Family and Friends Caregivers Directory provides information and resources relating to end of life care.
Topics : Uncategorized