Need of community-based palliative care in rural India and factors that influence its sustainability: a comprehensive exploration using qualitative methodology in rural Puducherry, India.

Background: The existing palliative care services in India are concentrated in urban areas, attached to tertiary care hospitals. This poses issues relating to access and equity for people in rural locations and with low socioeconomic status. A Community-Based Palliative Care (CBPC) service named Sanjeevan has been initiated in Puducherry, a union territory of India to provide physical, social, psychological, and emotional support to incurably ill people, including older adults living in rural areas.

Understanding dying as a focal point for defining an integrative approach to health and social care.

Long standing and poorly acknowledged tensions underpin what is considered success or failure in the field of health and social care. Such tensions threaten to undermine and limit much needed progress. In this article, I discuss the role of death and the dying process as a foundation upon which we might begin to address these tensions.

New public health approaches to palliative care, a brave new horizon or an impractical ideal? An Integrative literature review with thematic synthesis.

Access to palliative care for marginalized communities is frequently problematized as a major challenge facing palliative care services. The traditional response of asking what services can do for the disadvantaged has been invigorated by a new wave of public health measures that embrace death and dying as social processes and ask, what can be done together with such communities as partners working in palliative care. Such work has generated a significant amount of academic, social and political interests over the last 20 years; however, we are yet to see a consistent and sustained change in approach from providers.

Social networks, social capital and end-of-life care for people with dementia: a realist review.

Objectives: (1) To develop an understanding of how social capital may be conceptualised within the context of end-of-life care and how it can influence outcomes for people with dementia and their families with specific reference to the context and mechanisms that explain observed outcomes. (2) To produce guidance for healthcare systems and researchers to better structure and design a public health approach to end-of-life care for people with dementia.

Design: A realist review.

Identification and evaluation of observational measures for the assessment and/or monitoring of level of consciousness in adult palliative care patients: A systematic review for I-CAN-CARE.

Background: The use of observational measures to assess palliative care patients' level of consciousness may improve patient care and comfort. However, there is limited knowledge regarding the validity and reliability of these measures in palliative care settings.

Aim: To identify and evaluate the psychometric performance of observational level of consciousness measures used in palliative care.

A public health approach to palliative care in the response to drug resistant TB: an ethnographic study in Bengaluru, India.

Background: The treatment of Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis represents one of the most significant challenges to global health. Despite guidance on improving treatment outcomes, there is little focus on how to support individuals in their suffering. Palliative care is therefore proposed as a necessary component in the global strategy to fight Tuberculosis.

Acute oesophageal necrosis syndrome.

An 89-year-old woman with a known hiatus hernia presented to the accident and emergency department with acute onset epigastric pain. CT of the thorax and abdomen revealed a large hiatus hernia with mesentero-axial volvulus but no evidence of strangulation. A large aneurysmal aortic arch and descending aorta were visible with associated mural thrombus.