Findings from IHF’s Dying, Death and Bereavement in Ireland Report, 2026, have identified that, Irelands older population is growing rapidly and the number of people aged over 65 is projected to double in the next 20 years, surpassing 1.5 million by the year 2046. With our growing ageing population, the current provision of palliative care services will have to grow significantly to meet the increasing demand.
IHF receives regular enquiries from healthcare professionals seeking information and resources to support end-of-life care at home. Through our programmes we support people facing dying, death and bereavement and those caring for them, including primary care, community palliative care teams, nursing homes, hospitals, GPs and community pharmacists.
Research has shown that most people (74%) would like to stay in their own home when they are approaching the end of their lives. However, CSO data from 2023 shows that 92% of people die somewhere other than a hospice and that 24% of people died at home in their community. IHF’s Dying Well at Home (DWAH) programme aims to address this need, with targeted education and training programmes for families, carers, and healthcare professionals providing generalist palliative care within home-based settings.
To inform this new programme we sought the views of people with lived experience of providing care at home by conducting a series of consultations. We also sought the views of community pharmacists. These were reflected in IHF’s DWAH Focus Group Report, (2023) which made recommendations to support people better with end-of-life care at home (available at hospicefoundation.ie> Supports and Services> Healthcare Hub > Dying Well at Home).
Our Dying Well at Home programme aims to support end-of-life care for people who wish to die at home.
We have developed several free resources which we would like to share with community pharmacists. We hope these will be a useful resource for your practice colleagues, patients and their families:
A free eLearning programme to meet the needs of healthcare professionals, healthcare assistants, families and informal carers, offering a broad and inclusive approach to palliative care education. It includes six modules over seven lessons, each lasting approximately 15 minutes (available at elearninghospicefoundation.ie > Dying Well at Home).
This eLearning programme is designed to support individuals who are:
A comprehensive brochure is available, When Someone You Care About Is Dying at Home — What to Expect. (available at hospicefoundation.ie> Supports and Services> Healthcare Hub > Dying Well at Home). In this booklet, you will find tips and information on:
Marese Damery
Programme Manager Healthcare, Dying Well at Home Programme, Irish Hospice Foundation
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