Jane Fleming, University of Cambridge
This is one of two final articles in our Coping with Mortality series. Today’s accompanying piece explains the importance of effectively using palliative care services. You can read previous articles in our series here.
Across the developed world more people are living longer, which of course means more get to be extremely old by the time they die. Nearly half of all deaths in the United Kingdom are in people aged 85 or older, up from only one in five just 25 years ago.
Dying in older age can mean a different sort of death, such as becoming gradually frailer in both body and mind and developing numerous health problems over many years. Where years after retirement were previously considered just old age, a longer life span means the later years now include variation reflected in labels such as younger old and older old.
Our previous research showed people who are over 90 when they die need more support with daily life in their last year than ev...
Want to see the rest of this article?
Would you like to see the rest of this article and all the other benefits that Issues Online can provide with?
- Useful related articles
- Video and multimedia references
- Statistical information and reference material
- Glossary of terms
- Key Facts and figures
- Related assignments
- Resource material and websites