End of life care

This section of the BGS guidance on end of life care in older people looks at the investigation and management of falls in the last phase of life.

This section of the BGS guidance on end of life care in older people examines the management of continence-related issues in frail older people at the end of life. 

This section of the BGS guidance on end of life care in older people examines the management of pain in older people living with frailty at the end of life.

This section of the BGS guidance on end of life care in older people examines the management of acute deterioration in the context of frailty at the end of life. 

This section of the BGS guidance on end of life care in older people looks at the role of advance care planning (ACP) in helping to make decisions about a persons wishes for the future.

This section of the BGS guidance on end of life care in older people examines how to identify when a person with frailty is entering the last year of life.

View presentation slides from the Joint BGS, Macmillan and RCR OncoGeriatrics Meeting 2019 held on 27-28 February 2019 in London.

Samuel Willis describes the value of stories - telling them and listening to them. It creates bonds and humanises the teller and listener.

Learn more on the importance of diagnosis and managing chronic kidney disease in older adults through this collection from Age and Ageing in collaboration with the ERA journals Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation (NDT) and Clinical Kidney Journal (CKJ).

This statement sets out the BGS position on assisted dying, our priorities for end of life care, and our concerns that effective legal safeguards cannot be created to protect older people from unwarranted harms.

Rose Miranda argues that not only researchers, doctors and nurses should be aware of the phenomenon of pain in people with dementia. We need to make the public aware of it too.

What is mental capacity?  What do we really mean when we ask if a patient has (or lacks) capacity?  Capacity often depends on context.  The ethical conundrum of mental capacity unravelled. 

Physical health problems, particularly chronic health problems such as obesity, diabetes and smoking-related illnesses, are more common in people with long-term mental illness.

Clinical guidelines from the BGS / RCP and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) on advance care planning, multimorbidity and the risks associated with cold homes in winter.

Advance care planning (including end of life discussions) is being promoted as part of the NHS end of life care strategy. Such discussions require great care. The BGS with others have prepared guidelines on advance care planning which we summarise here.
 

Dr Eileen Burns looks at how Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment, better communication and palliative care principles can improve the quality of end of life care for older people, and asks: what constitutes a good death?

Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards are protections for adults who lack mental capacity to consent to, say, admission to hospital or a care home for treatment or care. Caroline Cooke and Premila Fade assess why they are being reviewed and the Law Commission's proposals.

Older patients frequently have dysphagia resulting from acute or chronic illnesses.  Dysphagia management requires a collaborative approach because of the complexities of older patients' needs, and geriatricians have an important role to play in overseeing this condition.

This study describes the model of healthcare support being delivered to nursing homes in South Manchester since 2004.

Perspectives on the COVID-19 pandemic and its affect on members' mental and emotional health, aired at the BGS Autumn Meeting 2020.