Palliative care of older adults
The world population is aging. As such, increasing numbers of older adults are living with multiple chronic diseases. These conditions can impact both the quality and quantity of life for these older adults. Health systems have historically not been designed with older adults in mind, nor have they proven to be spaces for older adults to thrive. However, recent significant strides have been made in reimagining health care for older adults across the spectrum of health and illness, up to and including end of life care through programs such as Age Friendly Health Systems.
While there has been forward movement in systematic quality improvement in the care of older adults, there remain challenges in providing optimal care for people living with multimorbidity in the advancing and terminal stages of illness. While specialty palliative care is on offer, access is variable and there is a dearth of specialty palliative care providers. Much of the primary palliative care of the seriously ill older adult rests in the hands of the primary care provider and the interprofessional care team.
In this special series of outpatient palliative care for geriatric clinics, we aim to provide the readers with an overview of key concepts of palliative care delivery relevant to specific conditions with attention being paid to special populations including aging veterans. Symptom management in older adults needs to be considered in the context of illness trajectory and frailty. Early integration of palliative care principals in the disease trajectory using a multidisciplinary team approach is critical for optimum care.
We are thankful to all our authors for their contribution and we hope you enjoy reading this special series.
Acknowledgments
Funding: None.
Footnote
Provenance and Peer Review: This article was commissioned by the editorial office, Annals of Palliative Medicine for the series “Outpatient Palliative Care in Geriatric Clinics”. The article did not undergo external peer review.
Conflicts of Interest: All authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form (available at https://apm.amegroups.com/article/view/10.21037/apm-24-65/coif). The series “Outpatient Palliative Care in Geriatric Clinics” was commissioned by the editorial office without any funding or sponsorship. All authors served as the unpaid Guest Editors of the series. The authors have no other conflicts of interest to declare.
Ethical Statement: The authors are accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.
Open Access Statement: This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which permits the non-commercial replication and distribution of the article with the strict proviso that no changes or edits are made and the original work is properly cited (including links to both the formal publication through the relevant DOI and the license). See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.
