Palliative Care for Seniors

Despite being overlooked by society (and unfortunately also by the state administration), palliative care is a crucial aspect of dignified dying. Palliative care can prevent or alleviate the distressing and painful moments for patients with incurable diagnoses. Quality palliative care requires a team consisting not only of doctors, nurses, and social workers but also of chaplains, psychologists, and physiotherapists. This team accompanies the patient and their family until the end, helping to manage pain, anxiety, and other issues.

According to the 2016 situational analysis of palliative care in the Czech Republic conducted by the Czech Society of Palliative Medicine, with increasing age, there are changes in the relative representation of diagnoses associated with the need for palliative care in relation to the total number of deaths. In the age category over 60, 80% of all deceased individuals need palliative care at the end of their lives. In the Czech Republic, acute and subsequent care bed facilities are the most common places where terminally ill patients die, and the last months of their lives are characterized by repeated hospitalizations. Acute care hospitals generally lack (with few exceptions) developed palliative care standards, and the quality of palliative care for terminally ill patients depends on numerous random variables. Unfortunately, individualized palliative care plans are rarely used.

It was not until 2018 that the Ministry of Health launched several projects in the field of hospices and palliative care and began to address the issue with greater intensity.

One of the main goals of the Josef Novak Foundation is to bring the topics of aging and dying closer to the public. Dying is an integral part of life, and we are not afraid to talk about it. The project “Support for Palliative Care for Seniors” aims to contribute through various activities to improving the functioning and quality of palliative care in hospice facilities.