Most physicians confront the moral and technical challenges of
treating persons who are coming to the natural end of their lives. At
the level of the health system, this issue becomes a more pressing area
for reform as premature death decreases and more people live a full
life span. Well-developed countries and international organizations
such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Organisation of
Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) have made recommendations
for improving healthcare problems in aging societies. Turkey belongs to
the WHO and the OECD. This article describes end-of-life healthcare in
Turkey, the design of the healthcare system to meet this need, challenges
that should be addressed, and solutions that would be appropriate to
Turkish culture and resources.
It is accepted throughout the world today that a new approach is needed to health care, one that brings to the forefront the role of economic development. This situation has also increased the importance of the health care sector and health data have begun to take a significant place in countries' development indicators. Health care services as a basic indicator of social and economic development in Turkey, as in the rest of the world, continue to gain in importance. However, there is a significant difference between health indicators for Turkey, which is a candidate for full membership of the European Union, and European Union countries.
We aimed to determine what elderly individuals think about good death and their level of anxiety about death in order to guide people and families working with elderly individuals. Materials and Method: 420 volunteer elderly participated in the study. Questionnaires were conducted using face to face interview technique. The measured values were calculated as arithmetic mean and standard deviation, while values determined by counting as number and percent. The significance of the difference between the means of the groups was evaluated using the T-test for 2-independent samples for two measured values, the One-Way ANOVA test for comparison of three and more measured variables, and the Tukey's post-hoc test for determining the factor that caused the significance. Results: The importance given to psychosocial and spiritual aspect, personal control and clinical aspect of death were found to be high in elderly individuals, having a near death experience and having children are factors that increase death anxiety of elderly people. Elderly women have higher death anxiety, and death anxiety decreases with age. It was found that thinking of death frequently increases death anxiety. Conclusion: As a decent and fair life befitting human dignity is an indispensable right for all people, decisions regarding the last period of life and the desire for a good death are equally indispensable rights for all people and all age groups, and applications in practice should be shaped according to these needs.
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