PALLIATIVE
DAY CARE IN PRACTICE
Julie
Hearn and Kathryn Myers (Eds)
 |
Julie Hearn and Kathryn Myers (Eds)
Oxford University
Press, 2001
ISBN 0-19-263183-7
157pp
RRP $US39.95 £24.95
|
This book provides an in-depth look at Palliative Day Care, one of the most rapidly expanding components of palliative care in
the UK .
All aspects are covered - history, needs assessment, multiculturalism, establishing day care, models of care, clinical audit, economic evaluation, and what the future directions might
be. Unfortunately, there is no list of the contributors, so one does not know their qualifications or institutional affiliations.
There is a wealth of information in this little book. It is required reading for
anyone contemplating establishing a day care facility, and emphasizes that you need to be absolutely clear about the who, why, what, when, and where, before embarking on such an exercise.
The chapter describing the psychosocial model of day care at St. Christopher’s provides some insight into benefits, but the book generally underlines the almost complete lack of formal
outcome assessment of palliative day care. The observations that 29% of patients attending day care had been doing so for more than a year, and that
the mean duration of attendance of the longest attendees was 4.5 years (range 1 - 12 years), raise a question regarding what clinical conditions are thought to be suitable for palliative day
care. The chapter on the provision of services to diverse ethnic groups raises the usual questions but does not provide any practical answers.
Strongly recommended for anyone contemplating establishing a Palliative Day Care service.
Roger Woodruff
Director of Palliative Care, Austin & Repatriation Medical Centre, Melbourne
, Australia
