Building capacity in palliative care

BuildCARE-group1

In 2017, we forecast that, due to changing population demographics and disease patterns, at least half a million people in England and Wales would need palliative or end of life care every year by 2040. In the UK, we estimate that approximately 100,000 people die annually without the palliative care they need. An estimated 90% of the UK's annual deaths could benefit from palliative care.

Urgent action is needed to transform health, social, and palliative care services to meet the need for palliative care, including those suffering from chronic or complex illnesses, as well as older age-related conditions like frailty and dementia.

The ageing of the population globally, the predicted increase in people living with progressive conditions and the lack of senior palliative and end of life care academics internationally demonstrates an urgent need to develop the end of life and palliative care leaders of the future. Within the healthcare system, both in the UK and internationally hospices and palliative care teams are a very small part and even to this day rely very much on voluntary donations.

Our latest capacity building programme - BuildPall - sets out to tackle this.

The project has identified and is developing future academic and clinical leaders in palliative care, and is engaging them in research and evaluation of palliative care challenges.

Like its predecessor BuildCare, BuildPall is helping to train healthcare professionals deliver better palliative care across a range of settings, including hospitals, hospices and communities. The aim is to deliver earlier interventions that are backed by strong evidence.

BuildPall has funded several PhD students. Projects are varied, and include investigating outcome measures, codesign of palliative care services, health economics in palliative care, quality of life, independence, and what influences where older people die.

BuildPall has attracted support from other funders, including Wellcome Trust, Vivensa Foundation (formerly Dunhill Medical Trust), and the Dinwoodie Charitable Company.