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Call for papers for two forthcoming special editions in Palliative Medicine

1. Family Carers in Palliative care

Guest edited by Prof Sheila Payne and Prof Gunn Grande

It is widely recognised that family, friends and significant others (hereafter called ‘family carers’) provide care to patients during advanced illness and through the process of dying. They have an essential role in providing physical care, emotional and social support, financial resources, advocacy and anticipatory care, and in negotiating and managing care during the final phases of life. The presence of family carers who are able and willing to provide care can facilitate patient choices, such as place of care and death at home. It is a challenging and demanding role which may have physical, psychological, social and financial consequences for carers which outlasts the period of care and may influence their bereavement.
Family carers occupy an ambiguous position, being both providers and potentially recipients of care.

This proposed Special Edition will serve as a useful resource for everyone interested in improving support to family carers. It is written for researchers, clinicians, managers, educators and policy makers working in, or responsible for, palliative care and hospice services. The special edition will focus on care provided by adults to adults who are in the palliative phase of their condition. It will cover care provided in a range of settings including the home, hospital, care home (nursing home) for older people, hospice and other settings.

Such knowledge is essential for informing the construction, evaluation, and promotion of supportive interventions that promote well-being directly for family carers and indirectly for patients. Hence, the call for papers for this special issue invites theoretical and research-based manuscripts that address the cumulative and interactive effects of individual, family, community, organizations, services, and policy factors on family carers’ well-being. Thus we call for manuscripts that target research from health and social care perspectives with a primary focus on family carers within a context of palliative and end of life care. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Promoting needs assessments of family carers with implications for targeting appropriate interventions
• identifying factors associated with adverse effects of care giving
• Systematic reviews of the impact of carers interventions on outcomes
• International or national comparisons of carers economic policies and their influence on health decision-making
• Identifying the needs of specific groups of carers and their experiences

2. Understanding of palliative care in non-malignant disease

Guest edited by Prof Marie Fallon

In many countries specialist palliative care grew out of and has been closely associated with cancer care. This has led to challenges in providing palliative care for patients with non-malignant disease; knowledge, attitudes and skills have been strongly affected by this background. Modern palliative care in the cancer setting is more integrated than before and can move in and out of patient care, but this may not always be true for patients with other diagnoses.

This special edition will focus on developing our knowledge base regarding the palliative care of those with non-malignant disease. We particularly seek papers from those working outside specialist palliative care which add to our understanding of how palliative care can contribute to the care and meet the needs of those with non-malignant disease. Our aim is to publish rigorous empirical (original research or reviews), methodological or theoretical work to further our understanding of palliative care in non-malignant disease.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Understanding what colleagues from non-palliative care specialties require from palliative care to meet the needs of different patient groups.
• Learning from diverse health care settings and services across different counties about effective collaboration between palliative care and other specialties.
• How to educate people to provide effective high quality palliative care to those with non-malignant disease.
• The use of guidelines or national frameworks for providing end of life care to those with non-malignant disease.
• The views of patients and carers on developments in non-malignant palliative care.
• New methods of investigating these issues.

Before submission authors should carefully read the journal’s Author Guidelines.

Authors should submit an electronic copy of their complete manuscript through Manuscript Central. Submissions are encouraged by 1st October 2012. For further information please contact the Editorial Office: debbie.ashby@bristol.ac.uk

Guest Editors

Professor Sheila Payne
Director of the International Observatory on End of Life Care
Help the Hospices Chair in Hospice Studies
Lancaster University

Professor Gunn Grande
Professor of Palliative Care
School of Nursing, Midwifery & Social Work
University of Manchester

Professor Marie Fallon
St Columba’s Hospice Chair of Palliative Medicine
University of Edinburgh

For more information, contact: Debbie Ashby

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3rd call of the Marie Curie Cancer Care Research Programme

The third call of the Marie Curie Cancer Care Research Programme is now open.

Marie Curie Cancer Care is considering applications in the following research themes:

• Interfaces between specialist palliative care and other forms of care at the end of life
• Prognostication
• End of life care and younger adults

Please see http://www.mariecurie.org.uk/researchprogramme, for further information on the call.

The deadline for submission is March 30, 2012.

Application forms and guidelines can be found at:
www.cancerresearchuk.org/marie-curie-research-programme.

For more information, contact: Katie Hyde

To see more information about this news item, please click this link.

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