Palliative Care Matters for All: palliative care strategy 2025 to 2030

Introduction

Palliative care matters more than ever. Over 90% of people who die in Scotland each year have health conditions that mean they could benefit from palliative care. More of them will be older people living and dying with frailty, dementia or long term conditions who are likely to need palliative care over years rather than months. More children with life shortening conditions are living into adulthood but may die at any age.

This requires us to plan and deliver palliative care earlier and more effectively, to meet the increasing and varied needs of people of all ages, their families and carers.

When someone is dying, what matters is being comfortable and well cared for wherever they are. Care includes people important to them who are supported into bereavement.

In this strategy, we explain what palliative care is and how it helps people of all ages, and their families and carers to live as well as possible with life shortening conditions.

Changes in health, caring for others, dying, death and bereavement affect us all at some time in our lives. We highlight the importance of palliative care and its relevance to many current and future health and social care system priorities across policy areas.