Where in the world is a good place to die?
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Palliative care advocates not only in developing countries but also across the world are studying Kerala’s potent combination of government support and civic involvement in end-of-life care, the report said. Here’s a look at the best, the worst, and why Canada couldn’t crack the Top 10.
However, money is not the only hurdle to improving end of life care. The United States was ranked ninth by the report.
1 in Asia when it comes to providing care for the terminally ill, according to the latest Quality of Death Index released by U.K.-based Economist Intelligence Unit.
Still, the report says, a few low-income countries rank surprisingly highly: Panama (31) is making palliative care part of primary care; hospice care is growing in Mongolia (28), and painkillers are much more available in Uganda (35). Other significant factors that contributed to the effectiveness of end-of-life care, according to the report, include access to opioids (i.e. morphine) for pain alleviation, availability of psychological support and end-of-life conversations, and nationally subsidized palliative care. The United Kingdom scored 93.9 points out of 100, Australia 91.6, New Zealand 87.6, Ireland 85.8, and Belgium 84.5.
Kerala’s unique system revolves around the Neighbourhood Network in Palliative Care (NNPC) project, co-founded by Suresh Kumar with the aim of improving both accessibility and quality of end-of-life care.
“The availability of palliative services has steadily grown in recent years, with hospice programs increasing more than 50 percent to 77 programs during 2004 to 2012, and hospital-based palliative care teams multiplying from eight to 69”, the EIU said.
For the first time The EIU has also compared the supply of palliative care-as revealed in the Index-with the demand for such care.
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Overall, the report pointed to a global shortage of adequate care for people in their final stages of life. Now, a new study paints a grim picture for India in terms of quality of death, ranking it at last place among 40 countries.
