Before the 2020 Pandemic: an observational study exploring public knowledge, attitudes, plans, and preferences towards death and end of life care in Wales

Attitudes of the Portuguese population towards advance directives: an online survey

BACKGROUND

Advance directives (ADs) were implemented in Portugal in 2012. Although more than a decade has passed since Law 25/2012 came into force, Portuguese people have very low levels of adherence. In this context, this study aimed to identify and analyse the attitudes of people aged 18 or older living in Portugal towards ADs and to determine the relationships between sociodemographic variables (gender/marital status/religion/level of education/residence/whether they were a health professional/whether they had already drawn up a living will) and people's attitudes towards ADs.

METHODS

An online cross-sectional analytical study was conducted using a convenience sample. For this purpose, a request (email) that publicized the link to a -form-which included sociodemographic data and the General Public Attitudes Toward Advance Care Directives (GPATACD) scale-was sent to 28 higher education institutions and 30 senior universities, covering all of mainland Portugal and the islands (Azores and Madeira). The data were collected between January and February 2023.

RESULTS

A total of 950 adults from completed the online form. The lower scores (mean 1 and 2) obtained in most responses by applying the GPATACD scale show that the sample of the Portuguese population has a very positive attitude towards ADs. The data showed that women, agnostics/atheists, health professionals and those who had already made a living will had more positive attitudes (p < 0.001) towards ADs. There were no statistically significant differences in the attitudes of the Portuguese population sample towards ADs in relation to marital status, education level, and residence.

CONCLUSION

The results obtained enable us to confirm that this sample of the Portuguese population has a positive attitude towards ADs. We verify that there are certain fringes of this sample with certain sociodemographic characteristics (women, agnostics/atheists, health professionals and those who had already made a living will) that have a more positive attitude towards ADs. This data could facilitate the implementation and adjustment of relevant measures, particularly in the field of health education and aimed at groups with less favourable attitudes, to increase the effectiveness of voluntary exercise of citizens' autonomy in end-of-life care planning.

The ideal and the real: Patient and bereaved family caregiver perspectives on the significance of place of death

Home has become established as the preferred place of death within health policy and practice in the UK and internationally. However, growing awareness of the structured inequalities underpinning end-of-life care and the challenges for family members undertaking care at home raise questions about the nature of patient and public preferences and priorities regarding place of death and the feasibility of home management of the complex care needs at the end-of-life. This paper presents findings from a qualitative study of 12 patients' and 34 bereaved family caregivers' perspectives and priorities regarding place of death. Participants expressed complex and nuanced accounts in which place of death was not afforded an overarching priority. The study findings point to public pragmatism and flexibility in relation to place of death, and the misalignment of current policy with public priorities that are predominantly for comfort and companionship at the end-of-life, regardless of place.

Providing End-of-Life Care for Patients Dying of COVID-19 and Their Families in Isolated Death During the Pandemic in Japan: The Providing End-of-life Care for COVID-19 Project

BACKGROUND

Death resulting from COVID-19 in a hospital during the pandemic has meant death in isolation. Although many health care providers (HCPs) have struggled with end-of-life (EOL) care for these patients, the various strategies across hospitals are not well known.

RESEARCH QUESTION

What EOL care did HCPs give patients dying of COVID-19 and their families in hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic? What were the key themes in care?

STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS

This qualitative study used individual, semistructured, internet, and face-to-face interviews. We recruited HCPs who provided EOL care to patients with COVID-19 dying in hospitals and their families. Purposive sampling was used through the academic networks at the School of Public Health, Kyoto University. Anonymized verbatim transcripts were analyzed thematically.

RESULTS

Fifteen doctors and 18 nurses from 23 hospitals in 13 regions across Japan participated; 16 participants (48%) were women, with an age range of 20 to 59 years (most were 30-39 years of age). Participants described 51 strategies, including providing physical and psychological-spiritual care, making connections, providing death care, and arranging care environments and bereavement care for patients and their families. Four themes emerged as prominent efforts in COVID-19 EOL care: maintaining relationships with isolated patients, connecting patients and families, sharing decision-making in isolation, and creating humanistic episodes.

INTERPRETATION

Proper application and awareness of the four themes may help HCPs to implement better EOL care. To compensate for limited memories resulting from isolation and rapid progression of the disease, communicating and creating humanistic episodes are emphasized. ICU diaries and the HCPs' arrangements based on cultural funerary procedures could be provided as grief care for the family and to build trust. EOL education and building partnerships among palliative care staff and nonmedical personnel on a regular basis may enhance the capacity to deliver the necessary support for EOL care.

'The beauty and the less beautiful': exploring the meanings of dying at 'home' among community and practitioner representatives and advocates across Canada

Background

Significant structural and normative pressures privilege the ideal of dying at home in Canada. At the same time, the social complexities and meanings associated with dying in particular locations remain critically unexamined.

Objective

The aim of this study is to explore how diverse community members, including health and social care stakeholders, talk about preferences for locations of dying, with a particular focus on meanings of dying at home.

Design

Semi-structured virtual interviews were conducted with 24 community and practitioner representatives and advocates across Canada during the Covid-19 pandemic. This included compassionate community advocates, palliative care professionals and volunteers, bereaved carers, and members of queer, rural, and immigrant communities. Participants were asked about their own preferences for location of dying and elaborated on these aspects with regard to their client population or community group.

Results

Our analysis illuminates how meanings of dying at home are connected to previous experiences and perceptions of institutional care. As such, participants' perspectives are often framed as a rejection of institutional care. Dying at home also often signals potential for preserving ontological security and relational connection in the face of life-threatening illness. However, participants' expertise simultaneously informs a sense that dying at home is often unattainable. At times, this awareness underpins interpretations of both preferences and choices as contingent on considerations of the nature and type of illness, concerns about impacts on families, and available resources.

Conclusion

The ideal of dying at home is nuanced by identity, relational, and structural contexts. Knowledge from this study can inform realistic and practical person-centered planning across care settings. It can also help create more representative public policy and health system quality indicators regarding a 'good death' that do not rely on or perpetuate undeveloped and unrealistic assumptions about dying, home, and family care.

Understanding public attitudes to death talk and advance care planning in Northern Ireland using health behaviour change theory: a qualitative study

OBJECTIVES

Advance care planning is a key preparatory step in ensuring high-quality palliative and end of life care, and should be considered as a process, beginning with community-level conversations among lay persons. There is, however, indication that death talk among community-dwelling adults is not occurring, and there is a dearth of research examining why this is the case. This study aims to provide the first examination of barriers and facilitators to talking about death and dying among the general population in a UK region (Northern Ireland), and to provide a novel application of health behaviour change theory towards developing a theoretical understanding of the sources of this behaviour.

METHODS

The study involved qualitative analysis of responses (n = 381 participants) to two open-ended questions within a cross-sectional online survey, with recruitment via social media of adults currently living in Northern Ireland. Reflexive thematic analysis was conducted on open text responses per question, with the barriers and facilitators mapped on to health behaviour change models (the Behaviour Change Wheel COM-B and the Theoretical Domains Framework).

RESULTS

The findings evidence a myriad of barriers and facilitators to engaging in death talk, with themes aligning to areas such as lack of acceptance of death in social contexts and fear of upsetting self or others, and a need to improve interpersonal communication skills for facilitating conversations and improve knowledge of the existing services around death and dying. A theoretical understanding of the drivers of death talk is presented with findings mapped across most components of the COM-B Behaviour Change Model and the Theoretical Domains Framework.

CONCLUSIONS

This study contributes to a small but emergent research area examining barriers and facilitators to talking about death and dying. Findings from this study can be used to inform new public health programmes towards empowering adults to have these conversations with others in their community towards upstreaming advance care planning.

Support needs and barriers to accessing support: Baseline results of a mixed-methods national survey of people bereaved during the COVID-19 pandemic

BACKGROUND

The COVID-19 pandemic is a mass bereavement event which has profoundly disrupted grief experiences. Understanding support needs and access to support among people bereaved at this time is crucial to ensuring appropriate bereavement support infrastructure.

AIM

To investigate grief experiences, support needs and use of formal and informal bereavement support among people bereaved during the pandemic.

DESIGN

Baseline results from a longitudinal survey. Support needs and experiences of accessing support are reported using descriptive statistics and thematic analysis of free-text data.

SETTING/PARTICIPANTS

711 adults bereaved in the UK between March and December 2020, recruited via media, social media, national associations and community/charitable organisations.

RESULTS

High-level needs for emotional support were identified. Most participants had not sought support from bereavement services (59%, n = 422) or their General-Practitioner (60%, n = 428). Of participants who had sought such support, over half experienced difficulties accessing bereavement services (56%, n = 149)/General-Practitioner support (52%, n = 135). About 51% reported high/severe vulnerability in grief; among these, 74% were not accessing bereavement or mental-health services. Barriers included limited availability, lack of appropriate support, discomfort asking for help and not knowing how to access services. About 39% (n = 279) experienced difficulties getting support from family/friends, including relational challenges, little face-to-face contact and disrupted collective mourning. The perceived uniqueness of pandemic bereavement and wider societal strains exacerbated their isolation.

CONCLUSIONS

People bereaved during the pandemic have high levels of support needs alongside difficulties accessing support. We recommend increased provision and tailoring of bereavement services, improved information on support options and social/educational initiatives to bolster informal support and ameliorate isolation.