The first international conference on the Palliative Care of the Elderly: an overview

The effort to examine and improve palliative care for the elderly is actively joined. In Europe, Scandinavia, and North America, at least, issues are slowly being examined in clinical research. The response to the conference was enthusiastic, and new information emerged, for example: British Columbia's "Levels of Intervention" guidelines, Dr Doyle's description of new developments in Geriatric and Palliative Care training and service in the United Kingdom, Dr Triau et al's (Psychogeriatric Nursing Home, Leuven, Belgium) normalization model of care for dementia, and Dr Rory Fisher's argument that instead of using negative DNR orders in palliative care we should instead take a positive approach of specifying what palliative care can provide. Palliative care is not "no treatment;" increasingly we are able to be concrete and specific in our ability to prescribe a range of measures to ensure that our dying elderly die in comfort and without medical, legal, or social intrusion.