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+--- Thread: Which country is the best place to die in a quality manner? (UK community) (/thread-11632.html)
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Which country is the best place to die in a quality manner? (UK community) - C C - Jan 25, 2022
https://bigthink.com/health/best-countries-to-die/
KEY POINTS: Researchers conducted an international survey to determine what constitutes good end-of-life care and which countries are the best at providing it. They scored 81 countries, most of which earned a grade of "C" or below for their palliative care. The United Kingdom ranked first. The U.S. ranked 43rd [Canada #22]. Higher income, universal health coverage, and wide availability of opioids for pain relief were generally associated with better scores.
INTRO: Death is an inevitable part of life — a mysterious climax that all humans face, evoking wonder and trepidation. That’s why dependable end-of-life care is so vital. While only some of us break bones, develop cancer, or catch an infectious disease, we all die eventually. To depart with dignity in relative comfort shouldn’t be a rare privilege.
Regretfully, new research published in the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management shows that many countries do not offer their citizens a good death.
Eric Finkelstein — a professor of health services at the Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore, and the Executive Director of the Lien Centre for Palliative Care — led an international team of researchers to conduct a sweeping analysis of countries’ end-of-life (palliative) care. Finkelstein and his colleagues first set out to characterize quality end-of-life care, reviewing 309 scientific articles to determine the factors involved. A few that they identified included:
• The places where health care providers treated patients were clean, safe, and comfortable.
• Health care providers controlled pain and discomfort to patient’s desired levels.
• Health care providers provided appropriate levels and quality of life extending treatments.
• Costs were not a barrier to a patient getting appropriate care.
The researchers settled on 13 factors in total. They then surveyed 1,250 family caregivers across five different countries who had recently looked after a now-deceased loved one to ascertain the relative importance of each indicator. Here’s how the factors ranked... (MORE - details)
RE: Which country is the best place to die in a quality manner? (UK community) - confused2 - Jan 26, 2022
UK entry..
There is a strong possibility the UK entry was influenced by a representative of Hospiscare.
My mother's expectation of Hospicecare was a private room in a stately home with care provided by ministering angel types. The reality was a mixed ward shared with ten or so other folks scheduled for departure. She decided she'd rather die somewhere else. In fairness probably better than being found in a decomposed state after six months but certainly not what my mother was lead to expect by the charity's advertisements.
RE: Which country is the best place to die in a quality manner? (UK community) - Secular Sanity - Jan 26, 2022
No one sits at your bedside other than your family members, that’s for sure. The caregiver is usually a family member or friend that’s required to give around-the-clock supervision. Hospice that’s ran through Medicare here in the states is rampant with fraud and waste. It’s a billion-dollar industry. They jack up the prices on everything.
In fact, one owner was just found guilty of hastening the deaths of patients who were no longer profitable by injecting them with morphine.
You need to make this patient go bye-bye
RE: Which country is the best place to die in a quality manner? (UK community) - Syne - Jan 27, 2022
"wide availability of opioids" is called an epidemic in the US, not a criteria for a good place to die.
RE: Which country is the best place to die in a quality manner? (UK community) - confused2 - Jan 28, 2022
(Jan 27, 2022 04:03 AM)Syne Wrote: "wide availability of opioids" is called an epidemic in the US, not a criteria for a good place to die.Tricky point. Personally I'd like to be 'put down' (killed) when my continued existence becomes a burden to me with (possibly) some consideration for those who might care for me (in an emotional and/or financial sense).
There may be people who pass away peacefully in their own bed surrounded by family and friends (it is a nice story) but for most I suspect the reality is entirely different. Old folks don't do any quickly - they don't even die quickly. There's no point in having victims of death other than the person who actually died. Even for the person that dies - lucky enough to be born, lucky enough to live - what does anyone expect to come next?
RE: Which country is the best place to die in a quality manner? (UK community) - Syne - Jan 28, 2022
Well, opioids seem tailor-made for ODing.
RE: Which country is the best place to die in a quality manner? (UK community) - Secular Sanity - Jan 29, 2022
I’m with C2 on this one, I definitely want some painkillers, and if it gets too bad, a cocktail. I don’t want all my money to go to some fucked up facility. I want it to go to my children.
Once heaven is off the table, it seems profoundly ethically.
RE: Which country is the best place to die in a quality manner? (UK community) - Syne - Jan 29, 2022
Once my body or mind start to seriously fail me, I plan to simply take up base jumping, swimming with sharks...you know, seriously fun and dangerous stuff.
RE: Which country is the best place to die in a quality manner? (UK community) - Secular Sanity - Jan 30, 2022
Hmm…taking opiates or being eaten alive by a shark? I’ll take the opiates and then you can feed me to the sharks.
RE: Which country is the best place to die in a quality manner? (UK community) - Syne - Jan 30, 2022
What better time to have experiences you wouldn't otherwise in life? Facing death anyway, I'd much rather die doing something than languishing in a sick bed.