Background | Right Decisions

Palliative and care around dying is provided by health and social care professionals to those living with and dying from any advanced, progressive incurable condition. People often think that palliative care is just for people with cancer. This is not the case. We support people with non-cancer diagnoses too. We focus on addressing symptoms and helping people to live as well as possible until the end of their lives

Good palliative care is not just about supporting someone in the last months, days and hours of life, but about enhancing the quality of life for both patients and families at every stage of the disease process from diagnosis onwards. A palliative care approach should be considered alongside active disease management from an early stage in the disease process. Palliative care focuses on the person, not the disease, and applies a holistic approach to meeting the physical, practical, functional, social, emotional and spiritual needs of patients and carers facing progressive illness and bereavement.

These Palliative Care Guidelines have been developed by a multidisciplinary group of professionals working in the community, hospital and specialist palliative care services and provide practical, evidence-based or best-practice guidance on a range of common clinical issues. These will be of benefit to both generalist and specialist providers of palliative care.

Originally published in 2014, the guidelines have received a selective update and were republished in 2019.

Copyright

This guidance is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Licence. This allows for the copy and redistribution of this document as long as the Scottish Palliative Care Guidelines Group is fully acknowledged and given credit. The material must not be remixed, transformed or built upon in any way. To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.

Copyright for home page icons: pain by Adrien Coquet, Symptom by Puspito, Warning by Awicon, Prescription by sunardi, holding hands by SISWANTORO, Syringe pump by Muhamad Fuad Afandi, screen by Chehuna, Leaflet by metami septiana, and about by Mamank from Noun Project, CC BY 3.0.

Disclaimer

The Scottish Palliative Care Guidelines reflect a consensus of opinion about good practice in the management of adult patients with life-limiting illness. They are designed for healthcare professionals from any care setting who are involved in supporting people with a palliative life-limiting condition.

The guidelines have been developed by a multidisciplinary group of professionals working in the community, hospital and specialist palliative care services throughout Scotland supported by Healthcare Improvement Scotland.

Adherence to guideline recommendations will not ensure a successful outcome in every case. It is the responsibility of all professionals to exercise clinical judgement in the management of individual patients. Palliative care specialists occasionally use or recommend other drugs, doses or drug combinations.

The online version of the guidelines contains the most up-to-date information. Printed versions cannot be considered to be current.

Feedback on the guidelines is encouraged and welcomed and should be made via the 'contact us' section.