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Understandably the dying person may be mentally and emotionally distressed especially when they are cognitively alert near the end of life. They may also have very specific fears and concerns, for example, worrying about being alone at the end or a fear of the unknown and leaving their loved on…

You may find the person you care for is challenging in their behaviour . ‘Challenging’ is often defined as when a person is putting themselves or those around them at risk, including yourself as their carer, or where their behaviour is going to lead to a poorer quality of life. It can also impact…

The signs of death approaching will be different for each person. It is difficult to predict what may happen at the end of life, how long the final stage of dying will last, or when death will actually happen. Death may come quickly due to an unexpected event or the final dying process may happen…

One of the biggest challenges of being a carer for someone with a terminal illness is knowing when to ask for help. There may be certain crossroads in your caring journey when you will ask yourself different questions about when is the right time to ask for help and where to go for it: Who sho…

Here’s a summary of how you and the person you care for can work together to get their financial affairs in order in preparation for end of life. It explores what funding sources are out there to support the person you care for, as well as you as their carer. Getting financial affairs in order …

Here’s a quick guide for planning end of life care with the person you care for. It explores the importance of taking a planned approach and highlights a number of ways in which, together, you can make an advance plan whilst the person you care for has the mental capacity to make their own decisi…

Mental capacity is the ability to make a decision. A person’s ability to make a decision can be time and decision specific. This means that when trying to establish if a person has mental capacity or not it will depend on when the decision needs to be made and what the decision is, so the person …

Planning ahead together involves you talking with the person you care for about what they want and don’t want in terms of their future care, final days, and after death. Planning ahead involves recording their wishes, so you, the wider family, and health and social care professionals know what to…

Organs can only be donated if the person you care for dies in hospital, usually in intensive care where the blood can be kept circulating. However, tissue (such as bone, skin, heart valves, corneas, and many others) can be donated up to 48 hours after a death which does not necessarily occur in…

The person you care for may have lost their ability to make their own decisions about their health and care and/or they may be unable to manage their property and financial affairs (see Mental capacity ). The person you care for may have already planned for a time when they cannot make their ow…