Geriatric Palliative Care

The growing geriatric population in the United States has created an increasing need for palliative medicine services across the range of medical and surgical specialties. Yet, palliative medicine lacks the resources to carry such a workload itself. Geriatric Palliative Care addresses this need by encouraging individual specialties to "own" the management of elderly with the same vigor as they "own" other key management competencies within their specialty. This clinically focused and highly practical handbook, which compliments the more comprehensive text Geriatric Palliative Care by Sean Morrison and Diane Meier (Oxford University Press, 2003), encourages this process of learning and ownership across many medical specialties. Designed to be readable and easily accessible to a range of health care providers, Geriatric Palliative Care outlines specific strategies for caring for specific palliative care issues common in elderly patients. The handbook also provides evidence based advice for helping patients, relatives, and staff cope with such issues as polypharmacy, dementia and consent, multiple pathologies, home care, elderly caregivers, and supporting the elderly in the place where they would like to be.Section 1: Overview ; 1. Introduction to Geriatric Palliative Care ; 2. Principles of Care ; 3. Medication Management ; 4. Introduction to Caregiving ; 5. Financing Palliative Care and Hospice ; 6. Ethical Decision-Making ; 7. Prognostication ; 8. Advance Care Planning ; 9. Communication Skills ; 10. Managing Conflict ; 11. Care Transitions ; 12. The Hospice Model of Palliative Care ; 13. Insurance ; Section 2: Special Issues in Geriatric Palliative Care ; 14. Palliative Care Emergencies ; 15. Dying at Home ; 16. Cultural Considerations ; 17. Complementary and Alternative Therapies ; 18. Clinician Self Care ; 19. Last Hours of Living ; 20. Bereavement ; 21. Spirituality ; 22. Palliative Sedation ; 23. Requests for Hastened Death ; 24. Assistive Aids and Devices ; 25. Rehabilitation ; 26. Mechanical Ventilation ; 27. Artificial Nutrition and Hydration ; Section 3: Caregivers ; 28. Caregiving ; Section 4: Symptoms ; 29. Pain Management ; 30. Fatigue ; 31. Failure to Thrive ; 32. Sweating and Fever ; 33. Behavioral Disorders in Dementia ; 34. Delirium ; 35. Terminal Delirium ; 36. Sleep Disorders ; 37. Dizziness ; 38. Headache ; 39. Myoclonus ; 40. Cough and Secretion ; 41. Dyspnea ; 42. Anorexia and Cachexia ; 43. Ascites ; 44. Bowel Obstruction ; 45. Constipation ; 46. Diarrhea and Fecal Incontinence ; 47. Mucositis ; 48. Dyspepsia ; 49. Dysphagia ; 50. Encephalopathy ; 51. Gastroparesis ; 52. Hiccups ; 53. Nausea and Vomiting ; 54. Urinary Retention ; 55. Urinary Incontinence ; 56. Bleeding ; 57. Thromboses ; 58. Lymphoedema ; 59. Pressure Ulcers ; 60. Pruritus ; 61. Malodorous Wounds ; Section 5: Diseases and Syndromes ; 62. Frailty ; 63. Falls ; 64. Depression ; 65. Anxiety ; 66. Alcohol Abuse and Dependence ; 67. Dementia ; 68. Seizure ; 69. Stroke ; 70. Parkinson Disease and Essential Tremor ; 71. Malignant Spinal Cord Compression ; 72. End Stage Lung Disease ; 73. Aspiration Pneumonia ; 74. Diverticulitis ; 75. Mesentric Ischemia ; 76. End Stage Liver Disease ; 77. Feeding Tube Management ; 78. End Stage Renal Disease ; 79. Recurrent Urinary Tract Infection ; 80. Diabetic Management in Advanced Illness ; 81. End Stage Heart Disease ; 82. Arrhythmias ; 83. Valvular Heart Disease ; 84. Peripheral Arterial Disease ; 85. Hip Fracture Management ; 86. Osteoarthritis ; 87. Lumbar Spinal Stenosis ; 88. Osteoporotic Fracture ; 89. Polymyalgia Rheumatica ; 90. Rheumatoid Arthritis ; 91. Osteomyelitis ; 92. Herpes Zoster ; 93. HIV-AIDS ; 94. Skin Cancers ; 95. Colorectal Cancer ; 96. Head and Neck Cancer ; 97. Breast Cancer ; 98. Prostate Cancer ; 99. Lung Cancer ; 100. Leukemia ; 101. Lymphoma ; 102. Intracranial Malignancies ; Section 6: The Interdisciplinary Team ; 103. Clinical Psychologist ; 104. Complementary and Alternative Practitioners ; 105. Dietician ; 106. Massage Therapist ; 107. Music Therapist ; 108. Registered Nurse ; 109. Physical Therapist ; 110. Pharmacist ; 111. Physician ; 112. Social ; 113. Speech and Language Pathologist ; 114. Chaplain