What is a public health approach to end of life care?
About Public Health Palliative Care
Death, dying, loss and care is everyone’s responsibility. A public health approach to end of life care, views the community as an equal partner in the long and complex task of providing quality healthcare at the end of life. All members of this association hold this principle to be true and commit their respective organizations to this value and vision of end-of-life care.
According to the World Health Organisation it is absolutely crucial that communities are involved in their own health and wellbeing and this must include their multiple experiences of death, dying, loss and care. This ‘new’ public health is also known as health promotion. Health promotion has the following characteristics:
A commitment to the following four concepts:
- Prevention
- Harm reduction
- Early intervention
- Sustainability
A commitment to the following methods:
- Participatory relations
- Community development
- Partnerships
- Education
- Population Health Approach
- Ecological/settings emphasis
For health promotion in palliative care this means directing attention of our prevention, harm reduction and early intervention efforts toward the social, psychological and spiritual morbidities and mortalities commonly associated with death, dying, loss and care.