Building Palliative Care: The Cicely Saunders Institute Journey

This case study looks at the work of the Cicely Saunders Institute (CSI) at Kings College London, U.K, and its impact on the field of palliative care since it was established in 2010; Atlantic was its largest funder.

The Cicely Saunders Institute is the only institute of its kind: it brings together in one center, the human capital – academics, community organizations, patients, and caregivers – and acts as a hub for international research. It also offers palliative care to patients as well as education, patient information, and support.

The case study included the following observations:

• The Institute provides a rare opportunity for clinicians and academics to exist in the same place, including clinicians from hospices, which operate outside the main healthcare system.
  • Research undertaken by fellows, PhD students, and CSI staff has:
  • Pioneered new approaches to hospital admissions for older people.
  • Helped showcase how palliative care can be provided beyond cancer in Ireland
  • Improved palliative care for people with dementia in nursing homes.
• The World Health Assembly Resolution in 2014 on the global need for palliative care and its effectiveness used research from the CSI and its Atlantic-funded BuildCARE programme to underpin its reasoning for the need for greater palliative care services.
• In the U.K., the BuildCARE programme influenced the decision to make a key part of the National Health Service strategy to try and achieve home care and death at home, if preferred by patients.

Atlantic commissioned this report.

> Read the report