End of life care: why talking about death and dying matters

What is the video about?

For people moving towards the end of life a personalised approach gives them a voice and influence over their care. This film looks at how personalised care can be achieved through the Living Well tool, which involves creating a simple one page profile to record a person’s needs and wishes. It is shared by everyone involved in their care so that they can quickly get to know and understand the person, even if they have communication difficulties. The film shows how the scheme is used in settings in Stockport and in Hull and features case studies showing how profiles work successfully in practice.

Messages for practice

1. Personalised care for people at the end of life requires a planned and coordinated approach to care.
2. Recording the likes, dislikes and preferences of a person at the end life in one place is a simple but important step towards achieving personalised care, whether from health or social care services.
3. People who receive care which reflects what’s important for them helps to make them feel more in control and more secure.
4. An understanding of what’s important for a person at the end of life means staff will have better ideas of how to support and reassure them.
5. A simple tool which records people’s preferences is also useful if they have to change care setting and can facilitate better working between health and social care.

Who will find this useful?

Health and social care providers; GPs and community nurses; personal care providers; users and carers; social workers; health and social care commissioners; health and social care policy leads.