Casebook on Ethical Decision-Making in End-of-Life Care of Older Adults “Casebook on Ethical Decision-Making in End-of-Life Care of Older Adults” is launched to provide an open-access online resource for doctors, nurses, social workers and allied health professionals who face ethical issues when caring for older adults at the end-of-life.This project is supported by The Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust’s “Jockey Club End-of-Life Community Care Project” (JCECC) and developed in collaboration with the CUHK Centre for Bioethics. For access, please go to CUHK Jockey Club Institute of Ageing (IOA) Website by clicking here. |
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| Do End-of-Life Care Social Workers Need to Enhance Cultural Competence
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| Dignified Care
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| International Community Palliative Care Interventions for COPD Patients
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Pain Assessment and Management Pain is a common experience for chronically ill patients and elderly people as they approach the end of life (Gibson & Lussier, 2012; Wajnberg et al., 2013). Pain is often part of the multiple symptoms and side effects that a person may experience at the end of life, or caused by other reasons such as injuries or falls. In the United States, for example, it was estimated that …Read More |
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| Dignity in the Chinese Context
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As the US is a multicultural society, it can be challenging for end-of-life care social workers to apprehend the variety of cultural backgrounds and needs of their patients and their family members. Therefore, the National Association of Social Work in the US raised the end of life cultural competence issue in …
Over the past few months, media has revealed several incidents with senior citizens not being treated in proper ways. For example, elderly residents were left naked while awaiting their bath, they were being neglected, and there were even instances where they were being scold and hit because they were …
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a serious long-term condition, in which the flow of air into the lungs is gradually reduced by inflammation of the air passages, and damage to the tissue in the lungs. COPD is a general term for a group of conditions, of which Chronic Bronchitis and Emphysema are most common. The disease is …
It stands to reason that a concept like dignity will be influenced by socio-cultural context and practices. How would the people in Hong Kong, a city with its unique cultural characteristic of East meets West, understand a concept like dignity? Will there be any differences compared with …
If a close family member or friend is diagnosed with advanced illnesses, and he/she may only have a few months to live, this does not mean you won’t be able to have fun together, or that it is impossible to share any more beautiful moments in life. …
The recently released ranking of 2015 Quality of Death Index1 , which reflects the quality of palliative care worldwide, shall help heighten public awareness of the importance of quality endof-life care (EoLC). Especially with Hong Kong ranking 22nd among the other 79 countries, despite being an international metropolitan. Accompanied by the inevitable trend of an aging population, it is about time that …
Certain topics are hard to address in our conversations with children. One of them is the story about “the birds and the bees”, or rather, where babies come from. A second major topic of life involves the other side of that story—when the birds and the bees stop flying and buzzing, or, what happens when somebody dies. Death is …
Massage techniques (for example, acupressure, reiki, deep tissue massage or shiatsu1) involve working with pressure on various areas of the body, in order to improve health and well-being. In the second century B.C., massage therapy was already described in China, and soon thereafter in India and Egypt as well (Field, 1998). This makes massage one of the oldest healing methods. Today, the effects of massage are …
A recent news reported the story of Mr. Ng, who is a 75-year-old elderly man passing away before an arranged outdoor visit to fulfill his last wishes. Mr. Ng had been living in a local elderly home for years. After failing onto the floor and hurt his neck accidentally 3 years ago, the lonely old man had never gotten a chance to …
故事主人翁陳念心婆婆，大家都稱她為心心，即使年過九旬，與患上心臟衰竭，個性樂觀的她總是說—「我好滿足於自己的人生」。心心婆婆有一兒二女，但隨著丈夫和兒子先後離世，她一度陷入精神困擾。她說慶幸有醫生、護士和社工，以及兩個對自己無微不至的孝順女兒，幫助她走出情緒深谷。即使她現在行動不便，視力下降和身體衰弱，心心婆婆依然心存感恩。然而，心心婆婆自患上晚期病後 …
Most end-of-life patients inevitably rely on the physical care from their caregivers due to the decline of their functional ability. While caregivers strive to provide the best care they can in order to maintain the comfort and quality of life of the patients, the patients themselves may feel worried that they are a burden to others, which in turn undermines …
For people suffering from COPD 1 the quote above will sound all-too-familiar, as dyspnea, or breathlessness, is a common symptom experienced by COPD patients. Being short of breath is an unpleasant, scary feeling that can impact daily activities tremendously. People who are experiencing shortness of breath are …
全球疫情大爆發，在社區的晚期病人、患有長期病的長者和他們的照顧者如何面對社交隔離、生病、甚至離世呢？疫情早期，他們擔心口罩、消毒劑的供應；但隨著疫情的發展，他們就著覆診的安排、對病情和疫情的焦慮、在家照顧引致的壓力甚至衝突、社交隔離下的鬱悶、身體狀況有轉變時是否需要入醫院、入院後不能探訪、甚至有機會不能見最後一面等一籃子問題困擾…
新型冠狀病毒在世界各地肆虐，全球死亡人數在短時間激增，令人擔心死亡隨時在身邊發生。面對死亡過程，會牽涉很多照顧決定，但因對死亡的忌諱，很多家庭成員沒有為此溝通，以致到危急一刻，在壓力及情緒影響下，花很大力氣去尋求共識。香港食物及衞生局早在2019年9月作了有關預設醫療指示的全民諮詢，並與賽馬會安寧頌計劃合辦了…
照顧患有晚期疾病的家人絕對不是易事。照顧工作不單花時間、花心機，很多照顧者在照顧患病家人時都覺得身心俱疲。心情上，照顧者通常都會遇上一系列負面情緒，例如：憤怒、沮喪、抑鬱、無助、悲哀、焦慮、焦躁、寂寞、孤獨等等。一項於加拿大進行的研究發現 …
西方諺語說：要用一整個村莊(的人力物力)去養育一個小朋友 (it takes a village to raise a child)。我們會用一條村的人力物力去關懷晚期疾病的病人及家屬嗎？Allan Kellehear 教授在他的「提昇健康的安寧服務模式」中指出 …
Kees 是荷蘭一位救護車司機，他曾經載過一位正在接受紓緩治療的病人 Mario。Mario 曾是一位船員，他大半生都是海上渡過，他向 Kees 講他願意在死前做任何事情去看海及看鹿特丹港最後一眼。Kees 聽後非常感動，因此他決定載 Mario 去到鹿特丹市內的運河。數天之後， …
多年以來，我們都被教導如何活得豐盛，及如何善用時間去造福人群；但我們並沒有太多機會談論臨終及死亡。法國歷史學者菲莉普．阿雷茲 (Phillipe Ariès) 寫了一本書《西方對死亡的態度》聚焦談論死亡，具有里程碑式的意義。該書仔細描述了由中世紀時期開始，人們如何理解臨終與死亡 …
在生活中，我們計畫和準備很多東西。 學習、 職業和假期通通都掌握在手，但對於晚期的願望，即使心知重要，很多人卻毫無準備。最近，我認識了一位朋友，他身體健康，卻正在做一件不尋常的事 …
我們都知道生命有多麼寶貴， 也理解喪失親人的悲痛。和臨終病人一起的經歷更能讓人們意識到有尊嚴的死亡並不是一種奢侈，相反每個人理應享受。這就是當今“臨終關懷”理念的誕生和目的。 …
There were rumors that the government of Hong Kong would like to raise the cremation charge of the crematoria operated by the Food and Environment Hygiene Department (FEHD), from the current HKD1,220 to, eventually, HKD6,560 per case. This increase in cremation charges could …
For people suffering from advanced cancer or another terminal illness, the plethora of medical terms related to prognosis or treatment options, can feel really overwhelming. No matter how prepared someone feels for these type of conversations, or how well the disease and prognosis is understood. Living with an advanced illness is …