End of life care

End of life care is support for people who are close to the end of their life. This could be the last few months, or years of their lives. The care you are given helps you to live as well as possible and to die with dignity. Palliative care aims to make you as comfortable as possible and to support your family. You have the right to choose how you would like to receive your end of life care.

What to expect from Palliative Care

When you are diagnosed with an illness that cannot be cured, also known as a life-limiting or terminal illness, you can be given help to:

manage your symptoms and pain
emotional support or counselling for you and your family
social and spiritual support

You might receive palliative care at the same time as other treatments that help to treat your illness, such as chemotherapy.

You can be cared for at home, in hospital, or in a care home. You can choose how you would like to receive your care. Who provides your care will depend on what you need. Some people will need specialist care. Other people can be supported at home, by their doctor or other healthcare professionals, such as community nurses, occupational therapists and complementary therapists.

How to get palliative care

Speak to you doctor or your GP as soon as possible. They can arrange support or refer you for palliative care. You can get palliative care as soon as you have been told that you have an life-limiting illness.

Hospice care

Hospices care for people who have been diagnosed with an terminal illness and their families. You can visit the hospice to get support. They have a day service and activities. This means you can continue to live at home. Or you can stay in the hospice for further care. Hospices can provide a range of services including:

pain control and symptom relief
nursing care
counselling, complementary therapies, physiotherapy and spiritual care
activities such as art, music, reminiscence, beauty treatments
bereavement support for families

Palliative care services

Palliative Care Service at Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is a team of Clinical Nurse Specialists and consultants in palliative medicine. They can help you to manage physical symptoms such as pain, breathlessness and nausea. They can help with emotional and practical support.

Home Group services for older people provide support at home to adults who are coming to the end of their life or have been diagnosed with a terminal illness. The service aims to help them make practical arrangements and choices to enable them to remain in their own homes for as long as possible, and includes support with:

arranging home aids and adaptations
applying for benefits
putting your affairs in order
learning a new skill
taking up a new hobby
giving you someone to talk to

National Council for Palliative Care is the umbrella charity for people involved in palliative, end of life and hospice care. They have information, events and training.

Care homes in Newcastle

There are a number of care homes in Newcastle. Many provide specialist or nursing care.

See the list of care homes in Newcastle and the type of care they provide. These services are commissioned by Newcastle City Council.

Welfare benefits

Make sure you’re claiming all of the benefits that you can.

People who have been diagnosed as having 12 months or less to live can now have their benefits claims fast-tracked. This means you get access to welfare benefits quicker. If you are eligible, your benefits application is processed quicker, so you don’t have to wait. You don’t have to take part in a face-to-face assessment and you may receive the highest rate of benefits. This includes benefits such as: Personal Independence Payment, Disability Living Allowance, Attendance Allowance, Universal Credit and Employment and Support Allowance. Read more on gov.uk

You can get benefits advice and support in Newcastle.

Bereavement benefit is available after the death of your spouse or civil partner.

Preparing for end of life

Dying Matters help people talk more openly about dying, death and bereavement and to make plans for the end of life. You can join the Dying Matters community to receive their updates. They can help you to have those difficult conversations with you family, friends and in your community. You can choose to share your story to help others too. Their website has free resources to help start those conversations, including information for carers who look after someone approaching the end the end of their life.

Record Me Now enables you to record a video to connect with your loved ones towards the end of life.

The Digital Legacy Association helps you to plan and leave clear instructions on what would would like to do with your online accounts and records in your name when you die. Your accounts may include: email, social media, online shopping, chat and gaming. you can use their free resources to leave a statement of your wishes. This is not a legally binding document.

There are a few things that are helpful to think about and make plans in case you are unable to continue to manage your own affairs. You can find more detail about these on InformationNOW:

Writing a will makes sure that your wishes are carried out such as your funeral arrangements and how you would like your money and possessions to be distributed.

A power of attorney is a legal document, which authorises 1 or more people to handle your financial affairs and/or make decisions about your health and welfare. It gives you more control about what happens to you if you cannot make your own decisions.

A deputyship is a person you appoint to make decisions about your property and financial affairs and/or medical decisions, if you are unable to make decision yourself. :

Advance decisions Preparing an advance decision allows you to set out your decisions and choices about refusing medical treatment in certain situations, should you lose the mental capacity to make these decisions in the future.

Read more about planning ahead

Help to get your voice heard

Advocacy is free, independent support to help you to get your voice heard. Advocacy services pair you up with an independent advocate who is on your side if you need support. They can: