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The Role of Day Centres in Caring for People in the Final Year of Their Lives

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 November 2008

Graham N. Farrow
Graham N. Farrow
Affiliation:
Research Associate, Centre for Health Services Research, University of Newcastleupon-upon-Tyne, 21 Claremont Place, Newcastle-upon-Tyne NE2 4AA
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Abstract

The information reported here comes from a study of a random sample of adult deaths registered in 1987. Interviews were sought with the person who could tell us most about the last twelve months in the life of the person who died; 639 people took part in the study. Just under one in ten of the people who died had attended a day centre in their final year. Attenders were more likely to be aged 75 or over at death, to be women and to have been living alone. They were also more likely to have suffered from a number of long-term symptoms and restrictions. According to respondents it would have been helpful if a further 11% of those who died had attended a day centre in the last year of their lives. The most often stated reason for this was that it would have given the carer a break from the demands of caring. But the most often given reason why the person who died had not attended a day centre was that they had not wanted to – an indication of some conflict between family and friends providing care and those they cared for

Type
Research Article
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 12 , Issue 3 , September 1992 , pp. 313 - 327
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1992

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References

NOTES

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