Exploring the palliative needs of veterans at home

The care of veterans, especially those with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), was highlighted as an area of need in the Australia Department of Health and Ageing activity report of the National Palliative Care Strategy (2005, p44). Anecdotal clinical observations suggest that caring for dying veterans requires particular skill. While there is a developing body of research and literature about the provision of palliative care in Australia, there is a dearth of Australian literature that examines the specific end of life needs of particular groups like veterans and their access to palliative care (Department of Health & Ageing, 2006; O’Connor and Pearson, 2004). This report describes a small study that was undertaken to examine the home-based palliative care experiences and needs of veterans at the end of life.

The main aim of the study was to understand the palliative care needs of veterans as they face the end of their life. The study specifically set out to investigate how veterans died at home, to elicit distinctive aspects of a veteran’s death in comparison to a non-veteran and to investigate whether the needs of dying veterans were being met.

Exploring the palliative care needs of Veterans at home (23 kb pdf).