Yanna Van Wesemael

• Vrije Universiteit Brussel

Objective Volunteers are an important resource in bridging palliative care (PC) services and communities. However, no studies have systematically mapped volunteers’ actual contributions to PC provision and how well they are supported by healthcare services at the volunteer level. Such insights are important to shape and optimise supportive environm...

Volunteers occupy a specific space in the delivery of palliative care (PC), addressing specific aspects of care and providing a link between professional healthcare providers and informal care. Engaging and empowering these volunteers can be an important strategy to deliver more integrated and comprehensive PC. Insights into current actual voluntee...

Context Governments intend to meet resource constraints in professional palliative care by stimulating informal care, including volunteerism. However, little is known about current volunteer-professional collaboration. Such insights are relevant for future policy development regarding volunteer efficiency, quality of care and the capacity of volun...

Objectives Volunteers have an important place in palliative care (PC), positively influencing quality of care for seriously ill people and those close to them and providing a link to the community. However, it is not well understood where volunteers fit into PC provision or how to support them adequately. We therefore chose to describe volunteer ro...

Aging populations increasingly face chronic and terminal illnesses, emphasising the importance of palliative care and quality of life for terminally ill people. Facing resource constraints in professional healthcare, some governments expect informal caregivers like volunteers to assume a greater share of care provision. We know volunteers are prese...

Ageing populations increasingly face chronic and terminal illnesses, emphasising the importance of palliative care and quality of life for terminally ill people. Facing resource constraints in professional healthcare, some governments expect informal caregivers like volunteers to assume a greater share of care provision. We know volunteers are pres...

772263_supp_mat_Questionnaire_general_version_(English) – Supplemental material for Palliative care volunteerism across the healthcare system: A survey study

Background Volunteers fulfil several roles in supporting terminally ill people and their relatives and can positively influence quality of care. Healthcare in many countries faces resource constraints and some governments now expect communities to provide an increasing proportion of palliative care. However, systematic insights into volunteer prese...

Background Following the 2002 enactment of the Belgian law on euthanasia, which requires the consultation of an independent second physician before proceeding with euthanasia, the Life End Information Forum (LEIF) was founded which provides specifically trained physicians who can act as mandatory consultants in euthanasia requests. This study asses...

To study the implementation of LEIF, the consultation service which provides access to specially trained physicians to act as the legally required second physician in requests for euthanasia in Flanders and Brussels, Belgium, the use of which has been to shown to be beneficial to the careful practice of euthanasia. A representative sample of 3006 B...

Palliative care (PC) and legal euthanasia are widely considered as antagonistic societal developments and causes, originating in fundamentally different philosophies and conceptions of care. Pragmatically, the opponents of legal euthanasia fear: 1. "slippery slope" effects which would endanger vulnerable patients and 2. that legalisation would impe...

Since 2002, the administration of a lethal drug by a physician at the explicit request of the patient has been legal in Belgium. The incidence of euthanasia in Belgium has been studied, but the process and outcomes of euthanasia requests have not been investigated. To describe which euthanasia requests were granted, withdrawn, and rejected since th...

In Belgium and the Netherlands, consultation of a second independent physician by the attending physician is mandatory in euthanasia cases. In both countries, specialized consultation services have been established to provide physicians trained for that purpose. This retrospective study describes and compares the quality of consultation of both ser...

Belgium legalized euthanasia in 2002. Physicians must report each euthanasia case to the Federal Control and Evaluation Committee. This study examines which end-of-life decisions (ELDs) Belgian physicians label 'euthanasia', which ELDs they think should be reported and the physician characteristics associated with correct labelling of euthanasia ca...

Since the legalization of euthanasia, physicians in Belgium may, under certain conditions, administer life-ending drugs at the explicit request of a patient. To study the attitudes of Belgian physicians toward the use of life-ending drugs and euthanasia law, factors predicting attitudes, and factors predicting whether a physician has ever performed...

The Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg have adopted laws decriminalizing euthanasia under strict conditions of prudent practice. These laws stipulate, among other things, that the attending physician should consult an independent colleague to judge whether the substantive criteria of due care have been met. In this context initiatives were taken...

To describe role and involvement of Life End Information Forum (LEIF) physicians in end-of-life care decisions and euthanasia in Flanders. All 132 LEIF physicians in Belgium received a questionnaire inquiring about their activities in the past year, and their end-of-life care training and experience. Response rate was 75 percent. Most respondents f...