Please join us as we host this year’s autumn symposium, which focusses on End of Life Care in Care Homes. The symposium will be held online, and will comprise three presentations followed by Q&As.

The symposium is free and is open to anyone with an interest in care homes research and practice. Please feel free to distribute this information across your own networks.

Please register at https://forms.office.com/e/hfpd4K8WiY to get the Zoom link

Further details

Presentation 1: What support do staff need when supporting residents at end of life Speaker: Dr Isabelle Latham, Researcher in Residence, Hallmark Care Homes. Overview: This presentation will share the key findings from an action research project exploring the experiences and support needs of care home staff, when providing end of life care to residents. Findings include a set of practical steps care home organisations can implement to ensure a supportive environment

Presentation 2: Using the Comfort Care Guide in Care Homes Speaker: Dr Julie Doherty, School of Nursing & Midwifery, QUB Overview: The Comfort Care Guide is a digital resource designed to support end-of-life conversations with family carers of residents with advanced dementia in care homes. It offers practical guidance for facilitating discussions and includes access to the Comfort Care Booklet for family carers. This presentation will focus on the development of the Comfort Care Guide and highlight its practical application in care home settings. Presentation 3: Residents' Autonomy and Care Refusals at the End of Life

Speaker: Dr Dianna Teggi, University of Bath Overview: This presentation examines how care home staff navigate the ethical, emotional, and regulatory tensions surrounding the end-of-life care of residents with advanced dementia who refuse antibiotics, food, drink, and help with hygiene care. Staff interpret such refusals as expressions of autonomy and a wish to ‘let go’ and die, even when residents lack decision-making capacity under the Mental Capacity Act 2005. Their responses unfold within competing legal, regulatory and policy (or biopolitical) mandates: ensuring residents’ survival and safety (Teggi, 2024) while also supporting their autonomy. Staff lack the professional freedom to accept refusals that place residents at risk of harm. Yet they cannot compel residents to take in food, drink or medication. Ultimately, this tension fuels care conflicts between residents and staff, exacerbating harms for both groups at the end of life.