The vast majority of the 220,000 Canadians who die each year, principally of old age and progressive ill health, do not have access to specialized hospice or palliative care. Hospice and palliative care programs are unevenly distributed across Canada, with existing programs limited in capacity and services varying considerably across programs.…

Context: Approximately 20% of North Americans and 25% of Europeans reside in rural areas. Planning and providing end-of-life (EOL) care in rural areas presents some unique challenges. Purpose: In order to understand these challenges, and other important issues or circumstances, a literature search was conducted to assess the state of science on…

We searched nine electronic databases for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) about care at the end of life and found 23 RCTs. We assessed their quality using the criteria of the Cochrane Collaboration. The RCTs researched three themes: (a) the effect of providing palliative care through dedicated community teams on quality of life, on the…