ABSTRACT
Death of friends, spouses or family is a more frequent occurrence in later life, with bereavement and loss a significant feature of older age. This chapter discusses management of communication and eating, drinking and swallowing difficulties at the end of life. It focuses on communication and swallowing difficulties in the last few weeks, days and hours of life. Communication impairments are associated with several of the terminal illnesses, including progressive neurological diseases, such as motor neurone disease, dementia and advanced head and neck cancer. The desire to eat and drink diminishes when people are dying. The assessment of a person’s swallow at the end of life should be sensitive to the current circumstances. Working with people who are dying requires significant emotional resources on behalf of the healthcare professional. Towards the end of life, eating and drinking habits are likely to change.
