A New Way of Learning End-of-Life Care and Providing Public Palliative Care Education in Times of the COVID-19 Pandemic – Online Last Aid Courses

Abstract

Care for seriously ill and dying people at home is a public health issue and should according to Kellehear be everyone’s business (1,2). In the future we do need a cooperation of citizens and professionals in order to provide palliative care at home for all in need (1-5). The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that end-of-life care is especially challenging in times of a pandemic with limited healthcare resources and the need for isolation measures. We have been told a number of stories of people who did not receive adequate palliative care or relatives who were not able to say farewell to dying people due to isolation measures. In nursing homes isolation and lack of contact to relatives and others may lead to psychological, social and existential suffering. Last Aid courses for citizens have been started in 2015 in Norway, Germany and Denmark in order to raise awareness about death and dying, to encourage the public debate and to improve the citizens knowledge about palliative care (4). The so-called public knowledge approach as described by Bollig seeks to make knowledge about palliative care and end-oflife care part of public knowledge of all citizens (3). The aim of Last Aid courses is to provide public palliative care education (PPCE) for citizens in order to enable them to participate in end-of-life care provision at home (3-5). At present Last Aid courses have already been established or are being introduced in 16 countries in Europe and Australia.