Preferred Place of Care and Death Among the Terminally Ill

Abstract

The research on patients' preferred place of care and death has received increasing attention in recent decades. In palliative care, one of the main goals is to facilitate patients to stay in their preferred place of care, and to die in the place of their choice. Although ‘home' is often quoted as the most preferred place of care and death among the terminally-ill in other places, local studies suggested otherwise. In Hong Kong, death is highly institutionalized with the vast majority of deaths occurring in public hospitals. Local culture, health care system and its provision and accessibility, presence of public health care policy on palliative care and care for the terminally-ill are among the factors affecting patients' preferred and actual place of care and death. This chapter is going to provide an overview of the recent studies and to discuss the topic from the Asian perspectives, and to highlight on the debates on the related policies.