About the Book

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.

Table of Contents:
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