Avaliação das necessidades paliativas numa unidade de saúde familiar

Abstract

Introduction: The Portuguese population is in an aging process, with the number of elderly people per 100 young people clearly growing. Since Portugal has one of the highest average life expectancy rates, but with the lowest rate of years of healthy life, palliative needs (PN) should be predictably increasing. One of the barriers to timely access to palliative care is the difficulty in identifying patients who may benefit from it. Patients with PN are in hospitals, in continuous care units, but above all in the community, which includes the home and nursing homes, so primary care teams (PHC) are in the best position to identify patients with potential NP. National and international studies have evaluated PN in a hospital context, and to date there are no national studies in the context of PHC. Objective: To evaluate the NP in a Family Health Unit (USF) in the Municipality of Matosinhos. Material and Methods: Cross-sectional observational study in a sample of users aged 65 years or over from a primary care unit in the Municipality of Matosinhos, through the application of the palliative needs assessment scale - SPICT(r)-PT.