Why it really is better for the elderly to die at home: People aged over 79 are four times more likely to be comfortable than if they die in hospital

Older people are more likely to die comfortably if they spend their last hours at home rather than in hospital.
A study has found the chances of a good death are four times higher for people in their own house or a care home than those in a hospital ward.
Researchers from Cambridge University looked at the 'oldest old', aged over 85, at the end of their lives.
With life expectancy soaring, this age group now makes up almost half of people who die and many do so with multiple illnesses including dementia, heart disease and cancer.
The study of 180 people found just one in 10 died without suffering symptoms including distress, pain, depression, delirium or confusion.

However, interviews with their relatives and carers found their chances of a comfortable death were greatly increased if they were not taken to hospital.
Most people express their desire to die at home if at all possible, and the findings have prompted criticism of the NHS.
Lead author Dr Jane Fleming, from the Department of Public Health and Primary Care at the University of Cambridge, said: 'The UK is not the only country where an urgent review of the funding for older people's long-term care is needed, along with commitments to staff training and development in this often undervalued sector.
'It's heartening that the majority of very old people in our study, including those with dementia, appear to have been comfortable at the end-of-life, but we need to do more to ensure that everyone is able to die comfortably, wherever they are.'
Only a minority of very old people in Britain die in their own home, with just 11 per cent of those in the study doing so.
Those with memory problems, such as people with dementia, are most likely to live and die in care homes.
People with no cognitive problems or mild memory loss are most likely to live at home but be admitted to hospital when they are dying.

The Cambridge researchers examined the cases of 180 pensioners aged 79 to 107.
Interviewing relatives and friend after each person's death, it emerged that 69 per cent of those who died in hospital had died comfortably.
That rose to 89 per cent for those who died in their own home and 91 per cent for those in long-term care such as a nursing home.
The results were based on respondents, normally the pensioners' children, describing their death in a questionnaire as 'very comfortable', 'comfortable', 'fairly comfortable' or 'uncomfortable'.
The study, published in the journal BMC Geriatrics, states: 'Transfer to a preferred place of care should be facilitated whenever possible, but all too commonly a patient is admitted to hospital without those concerned having considered where they can be best cared for, or would wish to die.'
Nearly half of the older people, who died at an average age of 91, experienced at least three symptoms listed in the study during their final illness.
The most common were pain and distress, with the other symptoms including pressure sores, depression, delirium or confusion, loss of consciousness or neglect.

Pain was treated in the majority affected, but successfully for only half, with a fraction of those older people thought to have depression to have received treatment.

Co-author Dr Rowan Calloway, from the University of Cambridge, said: 'In the UK, we particularly need to address the current shortage of palliative care doctors in the NHS, where training numbers are not going up to match demand.
'In the future, community care will be increasingly reliant on non-specialists, so it will be crucial that all members of the multi-disciplinary teams needed to support very frail older people near the end of their lives have good training in palliative and supportive care skills.'


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4950314/Why-really-better-elderly-die-home.html

It's about time everyone had the choice to die with some pain free dignity. Death is a big a part of life as living.

HoratioTarr wrote:It's about time everyone had the choice to die with some pain free dignity.  Death is  a big a part of life as living.  

Surely it cant be long before the law is changed and people who choose to die can do so, with help and dignity, without traipsing to some strange clinic abroad when I imagine that's the last thing they feel like doing.

Your Pet is dying and in terrible pain, the Vet puts it to "sleep" every one agrees with this. We say, " You can't leave an animal in such pain",
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It isn't a matter of choice. It's a matter of economics.

Expand on that please.

I would think its a lot more economical for someone to die peacefully than linger for years needing medical care and attention.

You need medical care at home, too.  The reason why people go into hospices and senior homes is they need a caregiver.  

The ratio of patients to cg'er increases in a hospice, so it's less expensive.  At home it's one-on-one, and that can be highly expensive.

Oh right.
You were answering the OP rather than the posts that had followed re assisted dying.
Crossed wires.

Syl wrote:Oh right.
You were answering the OP rather than the posts that had followed  re assisted dying.
Crossed wires.

I think we should all have the choice if we become infirm and very ill. I don't want to carry on living if I'm like that, or have an illness which causes pain but can't be cured, in a vegetative state etc.

We have the right to live a life and should have the right to end it also.

magica wrote:

Syl wrote:Oh right.
You were answering the OP rather than the posts that had followed  re assisted dying.
Crossed wires.

I think we should all have the choice if we become infirm and very ill. I don't want to carry on living if I'm like that, or have an illness which causes pain but can't be cured, in a vegetative state etc.

We have the right to live a life and should have the right to end it also.

I couldnt agree more Mags.

I think you can make a living will. Whereby you state that you don't want drugs etc if you get ill

HoratioTarr wrote:I think you can make a living will.   Whereby you state that you don't want drugs etc if you get ill

Yes but that doesn't help the many people who can exist without drugs for years, losing all their faculties, ending life like a vegetable.

HoratioTarr wrote:I think you can make a living will.   Whereby you state that you don't want drugs etc if you get ill

Very dangerous. In effect, you are appointing your murderer. Think about that for a moment. Think about subliminal hatreds--family politics. Think about power of appointment...maybe your appointee will give it to someone else to make call. Think about economic motives.

Hospitals and clinics often try to force you into these decisions. Think, even, about their motives. Beds = money.