Cicely Saunders Institute
Please enter a search term to begin your search.
Place of death
Researching where and how people die
A core value for palliative care is to empower patients facing the end of their life by ensuring appropriate care is delivered where they wish to spend their last days. The Cicely Saunders Institute aims to provide the best and latest evidence to make this possible. Our research team conducted a series of studies over the last 15 years looking at where and how people die, and their preferences.
LATEST reports
Our paper published in Annals of Oncology reports a cross-national survey conducted in 2010 by King’s College London in partnership with several other universities and associations. We interviewed 9,344 members of the general public in seven EU countries about their views on end-of-life care.
We found that the majority across all seven countries preferred to die at home; this urges policies on end of life care across Europe to concentrate on home care.
The findings also suggest that a preference to die at home may be more stable than previously thought as we found no difference between people with and without experiences of illness, death and dying. Our analysis also suggests that the ‘baby-boom generation’ born after the Second World War (who are now in their 60s) will still have a strong preference for home death in 10–30 years time.
The survey was supported by the European Commission as part of the project PRISMA.
“The team at the King’s College London, Cicely Saunders Institute are to be congratulated on another excellent analysis in trends in place of death in England and Wales. The findings are very encouraging as the downward trend in the proportion of patients dying at home appears to have been reversed in the past few years. However, there is still a very long way to go to ensure that people approaching the end of life are cared for in the setting of their choice.”
Professor Sir Mike Richards (National Cancer Director, National Clinical Director for End of Life Care)
“It is so important to respect your loved one’s choice about where to die. It gave my mum such peace of mind to be able to choose where she ended her days, which in turn gave me the strength to enable her wishes be granted. Horrendous as losing my mum was I feel so honoured and glad that I spent those last months with her at home.
To have evidence that shows that more people’s wishes are being granted is reassuring and hopeful that services are changing to enable this to happen. However, much more clearly needs to be done so that everyone’s preference is respected and there is an equality of choice for all.”
Kirstie Newson (carer and user representative)
Proportion of home deaths in England and Wales
The report was widely covered in the UK and several outlets in China. BBC Radio has also interviewed authors Irene Higginson and Barbara Gomes.
Latest studies
More information
If you want to know what palliative care is about and what help and support are available for patients and families at home, in hospitals, in hospices, in care homes and other places you may find the three links below helpful. You are also most welcome to visit our Macmillan Information Support Centre (or call 020 3299 5229) , where Chiara De Biase (centre manager) and her team of volunteers will give you more information and support.
Hospice Information Service
Dying Matters Awareness Campaign
National Council for Palliative Care
Contact
barbara.gomes@kcl.ac.uk
Tel: 0207 848 5628/5510/5516
