ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION Th e number of cases of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) or a related irreversible dementia sweeping the world has been referred to as a ‘tsunami’ because of the devastation, both fi nancial and emotional, of the person experiencing dementia as well as their families. Th e end-of-life costs in the United States and in the United Kingdom (UK) are helping to bankrupt their healthcare systems.1 In human terms, the impact of people experiencing advanced dementia spending the last days or weeks in a hospital setting or in an intensive care unit can only be described as costly and an inhuman way to die. A palliative care approach to end-of-life care for people experiencing dementia saves money and is a humanistic way to live and to die as quality of life, relieving without curing, are the goals throughout the disease process.
