Going for Gold - what is ‘Gold Standard end of life Care’?

  • End of Life Care

Going for gold- what is ‘gold standard end of life care’ ?

Dr Keri Thomas OBE

How often do we hear that ,very sadly , a person’s loved one had a ‘bad death’ with traumatic crises , lack of communication or poor support in the final stage of life? Far too often we would all agree! So what can we do to ensure this doesn’t happen to you or your loved one?

We at the National GSF Centre in End-of-Life Care believe that :-

  • Everyone should receive gold standard care at the end of their life – that no one should live the last years of life suffering , unsupported or left to die badly
  • End of life care is everyone’s business – we are all involved, and we all have a role to play , including generalist frontline health and social care staff , specialists and hospices .
  • We only die once – so the way people die has a great impact on us all and can be felt for years by those left behind , whether families, communities or societies.
  • And Gold Standard end-of-life care should be for everyone , with any condition, in any setting, given by any care-provider, at any time- Gold Standard should be THE standard of end-of-life care for everyone .

So what is our response?

We at GSF provide recognised quality improvement training and accreditation awards for generalist frontline health/ care providers that provides reassurance that your loved one will be well cared for and enabled to live and die well.

How might this help you or your family ?

If your care-provider is GSF trained and accredited , you should receive high quality proactive care, with early recognition of decline, offering advance care planning discussions to clarify your needs and wishes , appropriate referrals as needed and effective coordination of care to ensure these wishes are known and met as far as is possible.

If a person had a ‘good death’ aligned to their wishes , their relatives often say, ‘Weren’t we lucky!’ Our goal at GSF is to remove the element of luck, to ensure that everyone lives well towards the end of their life and dies well , and that gold standard end of life care becomes standard care for all.

For more details see Patient Information on https://www.goldstandardsframework.org.uk/patients-amp-carers

https://goldstandardsframework.org.uk/ , email info@gsfcentre.co.uk or see international work on https://www.gsfinternational.org.uk/

or 20 year celebration video vimeo https://vimeo.com/showcase/7310462/video/434789767