Well-Being at the End of Life - (End-Of-Life Care: A) by Julian Abel & Allan Kellehear (Paperback)

About the Book

This state-of-the-field book argues that palliative care has drifted away from its transformative goals--and shows what to do about it.

Book Synopsis

The field of palliative care promises support for a dying person's physical, psychological, social, and spiritual needs, as well as the needs of family and community. Has this powerful vision been achieved? This state-of-the-field book argues that palliative care has drifted away from its transformative goals--and shows what to do about it.

Bringing together leading international scholars and practitioners, Well-Being at the End of Life demonstrates how contemporary palliative care has slowly but surely strayed from its original values and practices. The provision of palliative care now reflects institutional, medicalized, and health-service priorities. Increasingly, it has become solely clinical, confined and constrained by clinical service considerations and limitations. Those at the end of life are all too often viewed as patients to be treated instead of people with whom care providers must create collaboration, participation, and partnerships.

Contributors call for a paradigm shift in the values and priorities of palliative care to emphasize the importance of community to personal well-being. Drawing on the concept of health promotion, they advance a shared vision that merges the principles of public health with those of palliative care. Reimagining the field to foreground compassion and interdependence, Well-Being at the End of Life offers a new approach that puts community and professional partnerships at the heart of its practice.

Review Quotes

Well-written, accessible, and inspiring. This book will be of immense value to palliative care professionals and to others who work with aged populations.--Ellen L. Idler, editor of Religion as a Social Determinant of Public Health

About the Author

Julian Abel is a palliative care physician and visiting professor at Northumbria University.

Allan Kellehear is professor of end-of-life care at Northumbria University.

Abel and Kellehear are cofounders of Compassionate Communities UK and coeditors of the Oxford Textbook of Public Health Palliative Care (2022).