ReSPECT and dignity in 2019: Are we ready to meet the challenges?

As we enter another year of providing palliative and end-of-life care in general, and in the community in particular, we have the opportunity to reflect on some of the success points of 2018, while attempting to anticipate challenges we may face in 2019. In doing so, we have to also ask ourselves whether we are ready to support patients and those deemed important to them in meeting their needs. Dying cannot be stopped, so the challenge is what we can do differently in 2019 to make dying and death more dignified. Lessons from 2018 suggest that there is still a lot more we need to do surrounding older adults, the homeless and the impact of loneliness at the end of life, to mention a few issues. As people live longer into older age, there is the other challenge of frailty among this age group which will be very evident in 2019. We know that loneliness and homelessness have increased, and as a society, it appears we have become less and less tolerant of these groups. Lack of funding and other resources is only suggestive of how low as a priority these population groups have become. I would like to be proven wrong on this, but otherwise, such a picture can only highlight the unacceptable reality of our developed and civilised way of caring for vulnerable members of society. Indeed, this claim could extend beyond these two groups. Thus, 2019 is an important year in which we must come up with better ways to provide care.