Notes on the end of life: the social interactions between patients, carers and professionals

How people die and experience the road to death is important for all concerned - the patient who is dying, the family carers (carers hereafter) and loved ones they leave behind, and the health and social care practitioners. However, family carers often make great emotional and financial sacrifices and also assume heavy administrative roles to support the care of their loved one. The paper reports on the social interactions between patient, carers and professionals during End of Life (EOL) care. The findings are based on a PCT-funded consultation which examined the quality of EOL care services in one London borough. The project made use of ethnographic methods (open-ended qualitative interviews and observations) with 50 Borough residents of which 32 were patients and 18 were carers. The findings will consider in more detail the social relationships between patients, carers and professionals. It is suggested that while there are some encouraging signs of good practice among EOL agencies and professionals, greater care is needed on the part of frontline professionals in their day-to-day interaction with patients and carers to ensure a better quality of EOL care