Attitudes of surviving relatives to terminal care in South Australia

To provide evidence concerning caregivers' perceptions and experiences of terminal care service delivery in South Australia for a State Parliamentary Select Committee on the Law and Practice Relating to Death and Dying, a structured interview was conducted with surviving caregivers 1 year or more after the death of a family member. One hundred caregivers of deceased patients from metropolitan Adelaide were identified from the South Australian Central Cancer Registry. The study included caregivers of patients who died at home (N = 18) or in a public hospital (N = 27), hospice (N = 22), private hospital (N = 19), or a nursing home (N = 14). Home-care services were rated as good to excellent in most cases. The main sources of dissatisfaction were delays in gaining access to medical care and lack of practical help, such as showering or lifting. In most cases, the institutional care provided to terminally ill patients was judged by relatives as being good to excellent. Relatives expressed greater levels of satisfaction with hospice care, probably reflecting the higher staff ratios available at these institutions. Most caregivers considered that the place of death was the right place for the patient to have died. Home deaths were characterized by the patient having expressed a wish to die at home, whereas institutional care was sought because it was perceived that there would be better control of problematic symptoms in the terminal phase of care. Access to medical care, especially in public and private hospitals, was a concern for a significant percentage of caregivers.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)